#12. 19 October 2018

​frenz!

i hope you're all doing great and living your best lives.

first off, i apologize for two of these in such close succession. it shan't happen again. a bunch of great and exciting stuff has arisen and i'm too excited to keep it to myself. please read. won't you?

by way of introduction for new folks who've been added to this list without my asking here are a few points: 
1 - i send one of these about once a month.
2 - if you'd like to be removed from this list, simply ask. i'd be happy to oblige.
3 - i send these emails to promote my own projects, BUT ALSO to share other music that i've been listening to. often by my friends. sometimes by other people.

good stuff to listen to:
Star Rover :: I May Be Lost But I'm Laughing
gee whiz these guys are just so so so great. will graefe and jeremy gustin have been making music together for awhile and it is ALWAYS good. the album comes out October 19 and i've been listening to the three available tracks pretty much on repeat lately. tom-heavy grooves. guitar sounds ranging from spaced out echo to raw and crunchy to desert americana (is that a thing?). beautiful vocals blown out with tons of reverb. sounds like someone you love singing a song to you as you're waking up from a half-dream.
their previous album Western Winds Bitter Christians is also banana-nuts good.

Yang Jin :: Folk Music Master
i recently had the pleasure of meeting and performing alongside Jin in Ben Barson's insane climate change / migrant justice opera and i'm hoping to hear her up close a whole lot more. this recording of hers is beautiful and virtuosic and full of sounds that i think are familiar at first and then ... they aren't. really special recording by an amazing pittsburgh based artist.

Michael Azerrad :: Our Band Could Be Your Life
ok so it's not listening, but it's led me to tons of artists who i'd never heard before. i'm halfway through and even the bands that i'm not head over heels for musically have such awesome and compelling stories that i'm riveted anyway. granted, it's about the indie scene from 1981-1991, so it's super white-dude-y (and self-admittedly so), but damn there's so much good stuff. black flag, mission of burma, minutemen, hüsker dü... the list goes on. can't wait to read more and listen more.

Hannah Epperson :: Slowdown
hannah mixes violin loops, fragile vocals, poetic lyrical narratives, and electronics in ways that i really love. this new album always makes me feel like it's 2am. in a good way.