Post Rock Princess, The Music Appreciator

Live in Seattle, by Knifeplay 5 track album

New Knifeplay live to the boards will take your breath: knifeplayforever.bandcamp.com/album/live-i...

The latest Julien Baker and Torres record, the list goes on. Pinegrove cast a long shadow on the contemporary music scene. I’m not complaining

I wonder if Nick Levine realizes that his pedal steel playing in Pinegrove is responsible for the instruments now-essential inclusion in the hottest indie music these days. Waxahatchee, the whole Wednesday-MJ LENDERMAN circle of artists (all hugely indebted to Xandy Chelmis’ phenomenal spirit)

@mergerecords.bsky.social

Caveman Wakes Up, by Friendship 11 track album

The new Friendship deserves as much attention as MJ Lenderman’s ‘Manning Fireworks’ got last year. Breezy but dense with some road-honed musicianship, and Dan Wriggins’ poetic explorarions of the everyday are the sharpest theyve ever been. Run, dont walk:
friendshipphl.bandcamp.com/album/cavema...

If you snagged the Erika de Casier cassette, sincerely, fuck you (I’m deathly jealous)

Specifically calling out one music critic with HBO credits who writes god-awful long-winded listicles to resounding applause from his ever-diminishing audience of Gen Xers who think music stopped being good in the mid-90s, if not earlier

“Listicles” gotta be the lowest form of journalism and some writers entire careers are made from them. Oooh an arbitrary ranking. They’re never interesting!

Of course, Pinegrove itself owes quite a bit to Modern Baseball

MJ Lenderman is downstream of Pinegrove!

Pinegrove’s influence on contemporary popular indie music’s sound has really yet to be grappled. What an institution!

Cannot for the life of me understand the appeal of Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band. Sardonic without being smart, loquacious lyricism to the point of absurdity. And seeing him live, sheesh. He literally could not play his guitar!

The exceptional level of panning I’m seeing across the critical millieu only serves to reinforce that the latest Car Seat Headrest is for the heads

New Turnstile is fun, but can we please stop calling them a hardcore band? This is textbook pop hard rock. ‘Seeing Stars/Birds’ could’ve been a Limp Bizkit b-side, let’s be serious

Do I repay my student loans, or preorder the Autechre reissues? Quite the dilemma.

People are going to speak on Jim-E Stack with the same vitriol they attack Jack Antonoff for his supposed influence on the production of the uber-pop girlies of the past decade for the last Bon Iver, that mediocre new Lorde single, and god knows what he has next. And this time, they might be right!

Someone’s gotta explain why the double cassette of Adrienne Lenker’s ‘Live at Revolution Hall’ just cost me 50 bucks, damn!

I mean no disrespect to Built To Spill and the soundtracks of Garden State, Scott Pilgrim, etc., but I will not defend them as good films

The only band willing to stand up to Big Indie and the terrible films it spawned

Spoon will always be so real for this

Saw one of the worst opening acts I could recall open for the brilliant and sardonic Bill Callahan Sunday night in Kingston. Out of respect, I will be holding my tongue.

New Bon Iver is a sleeper without a hit. Im glad Justin Vernon is comfortable now that the Taylor Swift royalties are steady paydays, but not nothing kills that K-fueled creative spark like the insistent ennui of financial security. And Jim-E Stack, apparently!

It’s evolution versus reinvention. There is no one formula an artist can follow; it’s holistic, deeply married to their individual (or collaborative) craft. I’m of the opinion that ‘SABLE, fABLE’ is a sorry evolution that’s the product of cultural homogeneity shaping influence.

on who you ask. Robin’s commitment to melody and songcraft, coupled with his interest in international sounds (I hope he continues treading down the path of Brasilero with Tim Bernardes!) is balanced by their recent touring enterprise, which is openly a retrospective of Fleet Foxes’ ouvre.

Similar criticisms can be found for Fleet Foxes, the vessel for Robin Pecknold’s unique synthesis of 20th century folk and chamber pop music and exceptional voice. Their 2022 album ‘Shore’ can be viewed through the same lens of reinvention, but the success of the result will be different based

from their personal expression, to something influenced by the demands of the market. You see this in every medium, it’s not unique to popular music.

I think it boils down to something relatively simple- time. Bon Iver is pushing 20 years as a band and creative outlet for Justin Vernon. Coupled with his not-usual commercial success, that level of mass cultural appeal will reflect itself back on the artist, who’s work is transformed—

I don’t think it’s a product of “too many cooks in the kitchen”, considering ‘i,i’ had over 20 people contribute to the engineering of the album, while ‘SABLE, fABLE’ had a lean 6, the second fewest after ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’s two, lol

(Out of respect, I am not going to talk about Danielle Haim, but I am not a fan of the Haim sisters sonic direction)

Jim-E Stack is an excellent producer; Mk.gee is a burgeoning guitar talent who’s best work is ahead of him; Dijon is in a similar place, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with after 2021’s endlessly relistenablw and heartfelt ‘Absolutely’; Jenn Wasner is criminally underrated