Chasing Sundays is at Slide Away Brooklyn this weekend.
Asking questions, doing investigations, and other such activities. Come talk to me.
@chasingsundays.blog x @slideawayfest
I'm in NYC right now covering Slide Away, but I'm not leaving my readers high and dry. This week's Chasing Fridays is focused on the underground. I wrote about:
-ear's accessible new banger
-easterlin's Floridian scuzz-gaze
-Gol Olimpico's panoramic emo-gaze
-And then I interviewed Clarion, the latest Gen-Z shoegazers to have a massive TikTok hit. They're currently blowing up from that song, "Hello Juliet," and playing to hundreds of fans every night who seem genuinely excited by Clarion's catchy pop-punk/shoegaze fusion. I asked them about going viral, their anime fanbase, wall of deaths at their shows, their new EP and more.
Read the full article at the link in bio.
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🚨 EMERGENCY BLOG🚨
I didn't want to wait until next Friday when everyone will have already unpacked this song to death, so I just published a standalone review of Charli XCX's "Rock Music" on my site.
Read the full article at the link in bio.
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If there's two things I know I'm good at, it's extoling the virtues of cutting-edge indie music and mercilessly critiquing mainstream metalcore bands. So this week I flexed both those muscles.
-I think RIP Magic's new song "Screwdark" lives up to the hype.
-I went to a Bring Me the Horizon show at a hockey arena and once again found myself reckoning with metal's identity crisis.
-And then I asked future Olivia Rodrigo tour opener Grace Ives a few questions about her new record, her taste, her understated influences, her favorite Olivia song, and more. She's a good'in.
Read the full article at the link in bio.
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Took Sara to pet Highland cows (and donkeys! and cats! and other types of cows!) for her bday gift this year. Perfect day.
Taking it as a good omen that neither of us stepped in a patty 🙏
I went to Dublin for a few days in late November. It was stunning and I'll be thinking about what I saw, smelled, heard, felt, and tasted for the rest of my life. Everything looked picture-worthy, so here are a few scenes.
Massive thanks to @davidconnaughton_foggynotions for having me out for the My Bloody Valentine show, which was the impetus of the trip. Obviously that gig was otherworldly.
And my endless gratitude to @ignoreradio_shoegaze and @laurajdeburca for hosting me and showing me the coolest spots.
Shoutout all the other kind people I met while I was there. I'll be back.
I wanted to interview Otto Benson (fka OTTO) to unmask an elusive yet pivotal figure in the ongoing intersection of indie-rock and electronica. I knew his teenage project Memo Boy was popular on Tiktok, but until I spoke with Benson earlier this month, I had no idea the full extent.
What I learned astounded me. Memo Boy, which has Spotify streams in the 100s of millions, took off on Tiktok and became the soundtrack for a generation of suicidally depressed American youth. Benson characterizes it as the Pepe the Frog of indie music in terms of how far the songs have traveled from their initial source, and the way his music has been contorted by algorithms and extremely online meme culture.
Memo Boy funds Benson's music career, but it's also a "tumor-esque" trauma that he's been burdened with carrying. Over the last few years, the 26-year-old has attempted to treat this so-called condition by changing his whole life -- quitting his job, reformattimg his musical output, moving across the country -- in the service of peace, community, and offline connection. It's working.
To celebrate his latest and greatest album yet, 'Peanut,' I conducted the most extensive and revealing interview Benson has ever done. We talked about his entire (unplanned) career in music, all the Memo Boy craziness, his cult-adored music on Vegyn's label, playing in Porches, becoming a psych-folk balladeer, the spiritual philosophy that moves him, and much, much more.
Read the full interview at the link in bio.
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Wednesday had a huge year. Their great new album 'Bleeds' solidified the Asheville, NC group as one of the decade's preeminent indie bands, and a song like "Elderberry Wine" -- slicker, catchier, more traditional than their squally shoegaze fare -- suggested that they might be gunning for the wider, smoother pastures of alt-country. Not quite.
What I love about Wednesday is that they'll always take the left turn. Karly Hartzman told me that the follow-up to 'Bleeds' will be influenced by her recent love of metallic hardcore pioneers Integrity, as well as her longtime obsession with post-hardcore outsiders Unwound. If you thought Wednesday were going soft, then brace yourself for what's next.
I've been following Hartzman's career since early 2019 and finally got the opportunity to do a proper interview with her the week before Christmas. Instead of asking her the same questions about 'Bleeds' that she's been asked all year, we talked about everything else: Wednesday's early years, the personal impact of the band's growing popularity, her constantly evolving music taste, getting into hardcore, career sustainability, how she takes criticism, managing ego, the next Wednesday album, and much more.
Read the full interview at the link in bio.
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Ned Russin is an artist I deeply admire, both for his musical output and his ethical backbone. No matter how big his bands have gotten, he's remained a staunch advocate for DIY ecosystems, and he's really walking the walk with this new Glitterer album.
The record, 'erer,' is out via Russin's own Purple Circle Records, meaning that he and his brother handle 100% of the fulfillment, distribution, PR, and every other facet of the rollout. It's my favorite Glitterer record yet, and I was really stoked to speak with Russin about where he's currently at as a musician, thinker, and scene participant.
We went deep on Glitterer's evolution, the band's ethos, Russin's practical approach to independence, how the music world he moves in has been poisoned by "hustler culture," the weirdness around Title Fight's legacy, money, careerism, individualism, optimism, and so much more.
Read the full interview via Chasing Sundays at the link in bio.
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The Hellp are a fascinating band to me. Massively infuential on the sound, look, and feel of 2020s music, but greatly ashamed of how their ideas have been "perverted" and commodified by a culture that misunderstands their true intentions. Their new record 'Riviera' isn't so much a reinvention as it is a grand reveal: this is who we've always been, and now you can hear it.
I'm always drawn to mouthy, self-important, self-loathing visionaries on the fringes of fame who aren't yet receiving its material benefits. So I talked to Noah Dillon and Chandler Lucy for nearly two hours about their work, their lives, their misgivings, and their "greatness." One of the most entertaining and inspiring interviews I've done all year.
Read via Chasing Sundays at the link in bio
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