New Episode - Jobber
I was very excited to talk to Kate Meizner, the singer & guitarist of Brooklyn indie rock band Jobber. When I first heard about this band, it sounded like the perfect combination of two things I love: rock music & professional wrestling.
These two things have gone hand in hand for decades but to my knowledge, no band has pulled something off as well as Jobber’s rock’n’wrestling hybrid. Their song titles are all pro wrestling references, but you don’t have to be a pro wrestling fan to enjoy the music. If you dig 90s grunge, don’t hesitate and press play.
Listen to Jobber’s Hell In A Cell EP
February 2023 - Favorite Albums (so far)
We’re halfway through February 2023 and so many great records have been released this month. I wanted to highlight a few records that have been on repeat.
Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
Oh Caroline. My introduction to Caroline Polachek was seeing her band Chairlift open for The Killers in 2009. It’s possible I heard their song Bruises in this iPod commercial before that, but it’s been so long I forget which came first.
I became an instant fan. Their sophomore album Something is one of my favorite records of the 2010s and I’m begging someone to please repress it on vinyl. When Caroline went solo with 2019’s Pang, I was hooked. I was instantly drawn to the sounds of songs like Door & Ocean of Tears. They made me feel like I was being transported to another world. And then Caroline dropped the instant classic So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings which is such a simple, extremely catchy pop song. It was one of my favorite songs of 2019 & the decade.
So yes, I was very much looking forward to Desire, I Want To Turn Into You. It was released yesterday on Valentine’s Day, breaking from the usual Friday release schedule. And it lived up to the hype. We had already been exposed to a few songs from this record (2021’s Bunny Is A Rider & 2022’s Billions) and while I enjoyed those songs, I’m finding myself loving them even more with their placement in the track listing on this record. Another one of my favorite moments on this record is when we first hear Dido (!) on the song Fly To You.
Futuredizzy wrote an excellent review of this album yesterday on their Substack.
Favorite tracks: I Believe, Smoke, Pretty In Possible
Purchase: Vinyl - CD
Paramore - This Is Why
I was very much looking forward to this record as their last one, 2017’s After Laughter, is my favorite Paramore record and I was excited to see how they were going to follow it up. Hayley Williams released two incredible solo records during their break, Petals For Amor in 2020 & Flowers For Vases / descanos in 2021. Unfortunately she was unable to tour that record. To me, This Is Why feels like a combination of her solo records & After Laughter.
My kids love singing the chorus of This Is Why so I have a feeling it will be on repeat in my house for a long time to come.
Erica Campbell interviewed Paramore for the latest NME cover story, which is well worth a read.
Favorite tracks: You First, Figure 8, Crave, This Is Why
Purchase: Vinyl - CD - Cassette
Tennis - Pollen
Tennis have been Heavy Rotation mainstays over the last few months releasing some incredible pre-release singles for their sixth studio album Pollen. I can’t get enough of Let’s Make A Mistake Tonight 👇
As I mentioned last week, I’ve been a casual fan of Tennis but this album is making me want to revisit their previous albums. Last week, Devon Chozdin listed “The 10 Best Tennis Songs” for Paste Magazine. I’m going to dive into this list first.
Favorite tracks: Let’s Make A Mistake Tonight, Never Been Wrong
Purchase: Vinyl - CD
More albums:
I wish I had more time to write but there are a few more records I wanted to highlight:
Kelela - Raven
Favorite track: On The Run
Narrow Head - Moments of Clarity
Favorite track: Sunday
Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World
Favorite track: Miles Away
Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy
Favorite track: Sink Or Swim
You can hear songs from each of these albums on my ongoing favorite songs of 2023 playlist:
New Playlist - 2003: 💯 Favorite Songs
Years ago I made playlists for my top 50 songs from each year going back to 1988. I’m slowly re-working those playlists and making them 100 songs.
The further I go back in time, the harder it becomes to make playlists like this, but I’m up for the challenge. The reason it’s so difficult is because I have a rule for my 💯 Favorite Songs series: it’s 1 song per artist. 100 different artists.
I figured I’d start with years that have big anniversaries so let’s travel back to 2003. That was 20 years ago! Some of my favorite artists released records that year: Metric, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes & blink-182 to name a few.
I should stress that these are favorite songs of mine and not necessarily big singles. These playlists always lean more towards indie & alternative, but it’s fun to throw in an undeniable bop like Toxic to keep you on your toes. I’d love to know what your favorite songs were from 2003!
Final thoughts
I started a weekly chart over my Instagram & TikTok pages with the top songs of the week. I’m still trying to figure out if this newsletter will be weekly/monthly or whenever, so I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to send out the chart each week. But I will share my Top 13 songs of each month here.
I’ll write more about this next month but M83 dropped the first half of his upcoming album Fantasy last week. It has blown me away. Amnesia, Us And The Rest & Earth To Sea might be my favorite 3 track run from any M83 album. These songs are going to sound absolutely insane live. I’ll share more thoughts about the album once I’ve heard the whole thing, but I couldn’t send this out without mentioning it.
I appreciate everyone subscribing & listening. I’m still finding my way, but this has been fun.
That’s all I got!