Doechii has donned the crown

late in the year with several top 10 lists. Drake followed up Kendrick’s legendary diss with a lawsuit, and a lawsuit. PC Music is synonymous with pop music. We have another legendary over/under featuring RXK Nephew. The secular holiday of sharing Spotify Wrapped has wrapped up. I finally caught Chuquimamani-Condori, their blend of traditional and experimental music ringing through a church.

Support artists directly, buy Chuquimamani-Condori’s album.

p.s. in a hilarious turn of events I deleted my entire film photo catalog while consolidating everything to one external hard drive. Noticed when looking for this post’s featured image.

NewDad - Under My Skin

Shoegaze is back, baby. Back big time. Nice to see a push for Irish music with NewDad, who performed brilliantly, and KneeCap, who were unforgettable.

Cerberus Shoal - Daddy as Seen from Bar Harbor

Rough Trade released a 25th anniversary of the self-titled album. Beyond the refrence to the Dog of the underworld, the album art intrigued me. Late punk. Early metal. Folk. Pinning it down has eluded me.

Two Shell - +°+gimmi it (album version)

Finally caught the shells live. They remained anonymous and transformed my appreciation of music in enclosed spaces. Made a friend from Arkansas who introduced me to Shed Theory.

Bassvictim - Alice

Alice and Alice - acoustic were 1st and 2nd respectively, on my 2024 Spotify Wrapped.

⥗ sources

9. With her full-length debut, Alligator Bites Never Heal (a gesture to the Florida roots of the self-proclaimed “Swamp Princess”), Doechii makes herself known as a fully realized artist, with immense technical and curatorial skill.

⥗ rolling stone

“Not Like Us,” ... includes the lyrics, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young, You better not ever go to cell block one.” It has gotten more than 900 million plays, according to figures listed on Spotify.

⥗ ap

Indeed, Cook is an integral part of Charli’s sixth album “Brat,” out June 7. His remix of her first single “Von Dutch,” featuring TikTok star turned avant-garde adjacent Addison Rae — and her instantly iconic scream — has already gone viral

⥗ variety

RXK Nephew give his rating on Kanye West, Charli XCX, Thanksgiving, chemtrails and more on this edition of Over/Under

⥗ pitchfork

“Why don’t you do something?”

“Vatanen snarled as he prised and heaved at the cow. But the hare didn’t help, hare-brained and helpless as it was.”

— The Year of the Hare (Jäniksen vuosi) by Arto Paasilinna

Levi's - Ed Cray

The “Shrink-to-Fit” business that stretched to cover the world starts with a quote from Harry Leon Wilson’s 1915 novel, Ruggles of Red Gap, which is further pared down below.

“Never, indeed, have I seen a man so badly turned out. […] a pair of overalls, also faded and quite wretchedly spotty, […] Truly the man was impossible, and when I observed the placard he had allowed to remain on the waistband of his overalls, boastfully alleging their indestructibility,[…] There was a cartoon emblazoned on this placard, depicting the futile efforts of two teams of stout horses, each attached to a leg of the garment, to wrench it in twain. I mean to say, one might be reduced to overalls, but this blatant emblem was not a thing any gentleman need have retained.”

— Ruggles of Red Gap by Harry Leon Wilson

In reading that quote, I realized I’d never truly regarded a pair of Levi’s, only expected quality and durability for my low impact lifestyle. Never noticed this horse emblem.

After looking up the quote, I found Ruggles of Red Gap was released as a Comedy/Western in 1935 (preceded by 2 silent film, 1918 and 1923).

The Mountain in the Sea - Ray Nayler

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells

I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites.

The Tommyknockers - Stephen King

“Late last night and the night before,
Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, knocking at the door.
I want to go out, don’t know if I can,
‘Cause I’m so afraid of the Tommyknocker man.”

The Year of the Hare (Jäniksen vuosi) - Arto Paasilinna

“Why don’t you do something?” Vatanen snarled, as he prised and heaved at the cow. But the hare didn’t help, hare-brained and helpless as it was.

If Helsinki isn’t on your travel list, it should be, especially around midsummer. On

Oasis is back, again, sort of

The Weeknd is the top streamed artist on Spotify. Young Thug remains on trial for RICO charges while Jamie xx released a new album 9 years after his monolithic collaboration with Thugga. Tracy Chapman became the first black songwriter to win Country Music Award’s Song of the Year; for a song first three and a half decades ago.

Bully - A Wonderful Life

The lead singer of Militarie Gun was asked their favorite recent album, he responded with Lucky for you by Bully. Not one to pass up an artist recommendation by an artist, I did the following.

Search, play, repeat, repeat, repeat.

I now own the vinyl, a shirt, and am considering spending $150 to see her open for Suki Waterhouse in December. (Lost my job in November, I’ll catch her next time.)

Los Campesinos! - kms

All Hell, Los Campesino!’s 7th studio album, ended up in contention for my most listened to album of the year, penultimate to the above. They recently followed it up with a “shucked” EP, More Hell.

Snot - Snot

Snot was new to me as well, incredibly sad story, lead singer was killed in a traffic accident shortly before recording the vocals for Sont’s second album. Worst of all, his dog was also in the car.

All dogs go to heaven. The album cover lives forever.

⥗ sources

[Oasis] are scheduled to play 17 gigs in Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin starting July 4, 2025. More than 1 million tickets are up for sale at prices starting just under $100.

⥗ cbs news

The Weeknd now has the most songs to hit 1 billion streams on Spotify, the streaming service announced Monday (Sept. 23, 2024). He broke the 17-song tie with Drake.

⥗ billboard

The original version of the song reached No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 1988. It won Chapman three Grammy Award nominations in 1989, including for song of the year.

⥗ the new york times

Following the longest jury selection in history (10 months), the trial for Young Thug [...] began in November 2023. It is now the longest trial in Georgia history. [...] numerous offenses, including murder.

⥗ fox 5 atlanta

KoЯn is on tour to honor

the 30th anniversary of their self-titled debut released in 1994. After Gojilla opened, and after noticing the top cover of the urinals at the Prudential Center are engraved with the Jersey Devils logo, a discussion about color opened and my friend asked,

“Are you familiar with Josef Albers?”

“No.” 

My response, per usual, came before a beat to think, the surname was familiar. Anni Albers is a recent and immediate obsession, a published pattern journal of hers sits at this desk for when inspiration wanes. I know little about Josef Albers. Familiar that he was Bauhaus connected. Married to fellow artist and Bauhaus student, Anni Albers. Maybe he was involved with that school... Black Mountain College? (After review, integral to school.) Beyond that I’d have to reference the screen in the pocket of my jeans. 

“Anni Albers is widely considered to be the foremost textile designer of the 20th century... She was an adventurous graphic artist who took printmaking technique into previously uncharted territory.”

“Josef Albers, initially a teacher of elementary school, was one of the foremost art teachers of the 20th century. His approach to color and drawing now informs art education universally.”

— Anni and Josef Albers Foundation

A step of Anni Albers’ process for textile creation is what drew me in. Albers would freehand draw a pattern and weave the design on a loom. What started as geometry on pages of her dotted journal informed how the warp and weft would interact on a future piece. Start with something simple. Pencil lines connected to supplied ink points on a page. A page accessible to most. A page between the margins of math class notes, we would play Pigs in a Pen and attempt to out box the opponent. I wonder if Anni and Josef ever played… show me that journal entry… and textile. A map of human chance and luck, order and chaos, battled out between titans of color and design.