I am making this playlist a few days early because I'm procrastinating the OutKast review that's due tomorrow, a review that's going to be terrible, since I have no idea what to write about, and it's stressing me out. This happens in maybe five or six times a year in Record Club for me. Sometimes I can have the review written and polished up by Tuesday morning. Other times, I'm tearing my hair out on Thursday night. We'll see what lands tomorrow morning. In the meantime: a new playlist for Pam, and thus, a new playlist for you.
September 2024
Listen to the whole thing on YouTube here. If you have Apple Music, maybe Pam will share it with you.
1. "SCREAM" by the Bawdies — Holy shit, total WXPN band alert. I was picking up or dropping off the kids at one point, and the radio station was playing a Bawdies concert live from Japan. But wait, was it live? 2:30 PM EST pickup from school would be 3:30 AM in Japan. Maybe it was recorded live and played on air later? I didn't get the specifics. I was just jamming to this old-school garage rock bullshit from across the globe. It's not an XPN band because I heard 'em on XPN; it's an XPN band because this is J-Rock's answer to Low Cut Connie, a band that XPN overrates terribly.
Listen to the whole thing on YouTube here. If you have Apple Music, maybe Pam will share it with you.
1. "SCREAM" by the Bawdies — Holy shit, total WXPN band alert. I was picking up or dropping off the kids at one point, and the radio station was playing a Bawdies concert live from Japan. But wait, was it live? 2:30 PM EST pickup from school would be 3:30 AM in Japan. Maybe it was recorded live and played on air later? I didn't get the specifics. I was just jamming to this old-school garage rock bullshit from across the globe. It's not an XPN band because I heard 'em on XPN; it's an XPN band because this is J-Rock's answer to Low Cut Connie, a band that XPN overrates terribly.
2. "Rainbow Overpass" by Bright Eyes — The last Bright Eyes album disappeared in a puff of smoke, not because of any quality issues, but because it was released in the summer of 2020. I refuse to let this happen to the newest album, Five Dice, All Threes. Especially because it's instantly the best Bright Eyes album since Cassadaga. It's fun! Listen to this song! Being an overwrought drunk can be really fun sometimes! Conor Oberst fucking nails it here!
3. "Listen to the World" by Albert Hammond — I was knew the dude from the Strokes had a "Jr." suffix because his dad was a musician too, but I did not know anything about that until Sunny dropped a YSC pick from the guy. I'm into it. There's something about this music that reminds me of dusty forgotten vinyl LPs in a stack. Soft rock / folk / Cat Stevens-core, whatever. It's pleasant.
4. "Death & Romance" by Magdalena Bay — Still parsing through the album from these guys, who take pop music to the extreme, adding in some hyperpop / indie-pop elements, and crafting a sci-fi narrative around it. After hearing endless landfill from all the Rodrigo / Roan / Eilish / Carpenter / etc. ripoffs, this music acts as a nice palate cleanser.
5. "Messy as a Magnolia" by American Aquarium — Pam's tolerance for country music is much, much higher than mine, but I'm always out there trying to find certain niches in this genre to hide in. Hyden devoted most of a recent "what I listened to" column to country music, and I went through all of it, and most of it was dreadfully forgettable. Even this new album from American Aquarium—a country band whose work I've liked in the past—is pretty spotty. But I enjoy this song a lot. Feels like a good balance between corny-ass country love ballads and those badass stompers. It's got a heavy drum beat, I guess is where that latter description comes from. The refrain of "I'm gonna love you till the wheels fall off of this thing" hits right.
6. "Favourite" by Fontaines D.C. — Fontaines D.C. is trying some different things on their new album, ROMANCE, and pretty much all of it works. "Starburster" or "Bug" might have the edge in terms of best song from the LP, but "Favourite"'s guitar line is too bouncy and fun to ignore for playlist placement. At this point, it's safe to say that I will always check out new Fontaines, whenever it arrives, but "Favourite" is the type of song that makes me want to stay completely invested at all times.
7. "Taking the Farm" by War on Drugs — Shit, I think I said last time that I was never going to add another War on Drugs song to these playlists ever again. I don't know. Tough to remember what I said after listening to Wagonwheel Blues on repeat for three weeks straight. And look, Pam was there, at that concert. She knows what's up. She understands why this band is here. No one can possibly complain about this.
8. "Policy of Truth" by Depeche Mode — In honor of Pam knowing how to pronounce "Depeche Mode" when I didn't, here is the best song off what I'm told is their best album. Whatever instrument they got going here for the riff—synth, I would assume—is a winner. This song is trying so hard to be dark and angry, but a riff like that makes it impossible.
9. "Coincidence" by Sabrina Carpenter — Acting more as a reminder than anything else: hey, if you're my wife and you're in the kitchen and you're listening to Chappell Roan for the 100th time, maybe it's time to try out the other pop star (or other other, let's not forget Charli) from this past summer that you got into. It's fine, but I know you're gonna like it a lot. And know that your husband thinks it's pretty good too, nothing to celebrate but definitely something that will forever be tolerable, definitely more so than whatever copycat bullshit the algorithm is throwing at you ("Diet Pepsi" was the most recent one, and it literally sounds the same as every other song by all these Found Drama artists.......... I will eat an entire fucking hat if "Diet Pepsi" is not chosen for YSC by our Found Drama fans (you know who you are) before the end of the year).
10. "Zuttomae" by Fishmans — A coin flip. Either we will never talk about this again, or Pam'll be like "oh wow, this is interesting" and we're listening to Kuuchuu Camp during the next seven late-night drives home from the in-laws house.
11. "Red Light" by Fastball — First comment on YouTube: "We live in a world where dreary shit songs by Coldplay are globally massive, yet gems like this remain completely unknown. Sad." I'm on record in saying that "Red Light" is my favorite Fastball song now, but let's not go overboard here. A "gem"? Maybe contextually speaking. I never would've heard the last song on maybe their second-most-popular album if I hadn't forced a friend into writing about another Fastball album and received a volley back in return, and I like it enough to put it near the end of this Thursday afternoon playlist, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. It's still a pretty corny song.
12. "Last First Kiss" by Charly Bliss — Here is the point at which Charly Bliss officially, and perhaps irrevocably, turns from indie rockers to pop musicians. The weird part about it is that I have no problem with that. I know I struggled with the idea in the past, but this... I mean, listen to the song. This feels right. It's the feeling of finally owning a pair of shoes that fit properly. You just fucking know.
Come back for the October 2024 playlist, which will feature twelve songs from Hocus Pocus, Beetlejuice, and Labyrinth.
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