30 Days in 60 Minutes: February 2024
Featuring Liquid Mike, Friko, Golden Apples, Tapir! and more - "power-pop," "shoegaze," "emo," "blog rock," and other genres that used to mean something, dammit
First off, shout to No Expectations for sending a bunch of new subscribers my way…but also, goddamnit, Josh…you’re making me feel guilty about not having published anything in three weeks.
It isn’t for a lack of material, just confusion about what kind of format would allow me to be as off-the-cuff and un-self-conscious as I’d hope to be, free of any sort of editorial oversight. Something that takes less than a week to actually write. Focus on new music or Remember Some Guys? Bullet points or longform essays? Mixes are one of the few ways you can justify having paid subscription models, why not do that?
And then it hit me that I have a backlog of Something On posts going back nearly 20 years. In December 2004, I made my first “60 Days in 60 Minutes” mix - sort of an audio journal of mostly new music and other inclusions from older albums I’ve rediscovered or genre deep dives or just things that fit the mood. And the mood was extremely important, as I always prided myself on sequencing (which is, unfortunately, why they’re often lacking in rap and metal and hardcore, or music from like before 1988, since the volume differences are usually so extreme). I made them every two months and they were 60 minutes long, give or take a minute or two. They could be 58 or 61 minutes, but never 55 or 63. Around 2010, I was consuming enough new music to keep the 60 minutes but put them together every month - sometimes as doubles or even triples (those tended to happen whenever I was going through a breakup, the one from January 2019 right before I met my wife and I was working on the Vulture Greatest Emo Songs of All Time list is a doozy).
So here’s the one I put together for February 2024 - I’ll always post the new ones and pick some older ones from the current month (might tackle February 2017 next, those are going to be subscriber-only). I’ll sprinkle the YouTubes throughout as well. Enjoy!
Liquid Mike - “Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot”
I’m not surprised that Shoegaze Old Heads got mad at Eli Enis’ State of the Genre address in late 2023. I was surprised that most of the anger wasn’t directed towards the fact that teenagers can get a major label deal with only 10 minutes of Duster ripoffs to their name, or that Duster has three times the monthly Spotify listeners of My Bloody Valentine…but that Duster was considered shoegaze now. Or Deftones. Genres really are meaningless!
For something like 25 years, shoegaze was (or at least felt like) the rare genre dictated by a strict set of sonic parameters, where My Bloody Valentine (ethereal, feminine) represented one extreme end of the spectrum and maybe Swervedriver (they liked motorcycles) represented the other. Nowadays, “shoegaze” encompasses “former hardcore bands discovering Ride,” heavy alt-rock, dream-pop and…somehow, slowcore. “Shoegaze” is almost more defined by what it’s not than what it is, if it doesn’t immediately scan as metal or indie rock and it has cooed vocals and distended guitars, then I guess it counts. I guess TikTok is the ultimate judge of that.
On a much, much smaller scale, I see a similar thing happening with power pop. Pitchfork’s review of Alvvays’ Blue Rev - a pretty clearcut example of “indie pop” if there ever was one - described it as “power pop,” and I don’t know if that was a major shift in the discussion, but here we are two years later and the tag gets applied to melodic music played with guitars that doesn’t immediately scan as pop-punk or whatever. Joyce Manor used to have “power-pop-inspired” songs, but now they’re just sorta power-pop. Same with Guided By Voices.
And so that brings us to Liquid Mike, a band that has been repeatedly described as power-pop as if there’s nothing to debate on the matter and likened to both Joyce Manor and Guided By Voices, because, you know, they make short songs. Me, I hear them hitting a similar pleasure center as the Rozwell Kid or the Sidekicks, bands who were forever underappreciated throughout the 2010s because they were adjacent to emo or pop-punk or what have you but never the thing (it’s really telling that Superviolet somehow got more juice than Happiness Hours, there’s a more robust context in which to understand what Steve Ciolek is doing).
But I actually think of Liquid Mike as examples of a subset within a subset, not pure power-pop, but the more heavily online “Power Pop Chat” - to be real, most of the power-pop conversation I see these days occurs amongst a group of musicians and writers and musician/writers who constantly allude to a Power Pop Chat containing anywhere from 10 to 300 people, and I think that it trickles down to the music, which often sounds like it was made to impress other people in the Power Pop Chat, not necessarily in a bad way. It’s a legit scene! But much like a lot of what passes for shoegaze in 2024, Power Pop Chat really could use some swag. Fountains of Wayne had characters, Rozwell Kid had jokes, Joyce Manor at least gives the impression that Barry Johnson’s lyrics are connected to real life situations of getting laid or drunk or depressed. I like Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot, but I have trouble sussing out the personality of the band beyond “it’s a guy named Mike.” That said, I always like when the closing track on an album is the biggest banger and having it be the title track is also a cool move.
Friko - “Crimson to Chrome”
At least amongst Pitchfork writers past and present, I feel like the real Rorschach Test regarding the site’s editorial direction has nothing to do with Taylor Swift or the “Fantasy” remix or Turn on the Bright Lights getting a 7.0. Rather, it’s this:
“I know from having written dozens of these reviews how much work goes into them: two editors, fact-checking, final reads—a meticulousness that can be the making of young writers, each edit imparting a lesson you carry with you.”
In her Guardian piece on GQ4k, Laura Snapes wrote the above to describe how everything Pitchfork publishes in 2024 rises to the level of “journalism” as opposed to blogging or, the way I lovingly/sarcastically described the site in the past, “a fantasy baseball league that reviews albums.” And let me tell you, when you publish a review at a place with Pitchfork’s visibility, it’s nice to know that there are a bunch of people who will prevent you from saying something incredibly stupid.
On the other hand, there was Jonathan Garrett’s rejoinder in Last Donut of the Night - “There is no question that a late-period Pitchfork review is technically better, but is it more meaningful to the people who read it?” After reviewing Friko’s very good debut album, I’m inclined to see Garrett’s point of view. I’ve had a lot more trouble getting myself motivated to even pitch a lot of emo and hardcore albums for the simple fact that I know it’ll be subject to the same scrutiny as a New York Times piece about, I dunno, Brett Favre stealing millions of dollars from Mississippi’s welfare fund. It’s really hard to get 600 words out of a hardcore album where “it whips” is the central premise, and it’s really, really hard to write 600 words about an album when the thing that most immediately stands out is how much it sounds like the first Yuck record or Dye it Blonde-era Smith Westerns. Or, that it feels like Larry Fitzmaurice’s legendary CMJ reviews. “Remember Some Guys” might not be great music criticism, but it’s definitely meaningful to the people who read it. “This is a 8.2 Best New Music in 2011” isn’t great music criticism either, but it’s absolutely the truth here.
Counting Crows - “Angels of the Silences”
My IRL job brings me into constant contact with people between the ages of 16 and 20, most of whom act very surprised when I tell them I am 43 years old. “You don’t look like you’re 43,” they might say and I’m not sure it’s really a compliment, because they probably don’t know any 43-year olds besides their parents. I sure didn’t at that age, for all I know, my high school teachers might’ve been 32 or whatever and they were just “old,” or, at best, “young” compared to the people who were visibly old.
Similarly, at a time when I regularly saw people like Eric Clapton and Meat Loaf and Bryan Adams and Richard Marx and Aerosmith on MTV, I had no clue how old most musicians really were. Like, say, Counting Crows, a band that wasn’t old, but certainly appeared more adult than Pearl Jam or Bush or whatever. I vaguely recall catching this video back in 1996 and while I liked the song more than most of what I remember from August and Everything After, I was not particularly convinced at Counting Crows trying to do the ca. 1996 Darker Follow-Up Album Thing (i.e., Exit the Dragon, Black Love) by doing a live clip showing that they can rock. They were old, at least “old” to a teenager as far as alt-rock bands go. They were also about as old as present-day Cloud Nothings, but you wouldn’t guess that because it was perfectly acceptable for alt-rock bands to wear suits on stage in the mid-90s, particularly if you were from San Francisco (and not in the Interpol way where it’s a uniform, it’s usually the guitarist doing that). Anyways, I wasn’t going through any sort of Counting Crows phase when making this mix, it just fits because it sorta sounds like a song that the Hotelier would crush as a cover.
Gulfer - “Clean”
Great band, will probably be posting more about Third Wind throughout the year, if not writing about it (see: Friko, this a band of true emo believers and I’m not sure what else is there to say about reviewing Dog Bless in 2018)
Golden Apples - “Park (Rye)”
Despite being a 43-year old Pitchfork writer who lived in Athens, GA for three years and read Endless Endless and the 33 ⅓ on In the Aeroplane over the Sea, I never really got deep into Elephant 6 beyond…uh, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Something about overt Beatles and/or Beach Boys worship always rubbed me the wrong way, there’s a cleverness and self-satisfaction that I attribute to Apples in Stereo and Elf Power that speaks far less to me than Jeff Mangum lacking the self-consciousness that would prevent 99.99999% of all other artists from wishing they could make out with Anne Frank. Odds are, I’m really wrong about that and maybe that’s a deep dive I can do in the meantime, but anyways, I kept hearing about how Golden Apples were on some real Elephant 6 shit last year, which would mean that their band name is the equivalent of Dad Sports or whatever. Great song though, does feel very “Athens, GA via Philadelphia,” Lame-O is becoming a real indicator of where former emo/pop-punk kids are heading with their tastes once they age out.
String Machine - “Out Loud”
Along with NATL PRK SRVC and Good Looking Friends, String Machine were part of a bigger non-trendpiece I never ended up finishing last year, when I was doing that whole “Best Blog Rock Albums” list and wondering whether that era’s entire aesthetics were purged out of existence. Mind you, 2022 was a pretty big year for “Arcade Fire without Arcade Fire,” i.e., Black Country, New Road, Gang of Youths and Caracara come to mind. But it’s harder to find a niche for this kind of blog rock, a triangulation of Annuals and pre-cancellation, “ping pong documentary”-era Pinegrove. At least it felt that way six months ago or so, with the supposed “return of blogs” happening in 2024, I do think we have a potentially hilarious outcome of, I dunno, Peter, Bjorn & John or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah-style music (in both sound and aesthetics) making a comeback concurrent with “the end of Pitchfork.”
Empty Country - “Dustine”
Music writers were obviously going to see GQ4k as an extinction level event, but it was heartening to see all of the musicians and fans and assorted industry folks who recognized the devastating potential impact of losing one of the only major publications that still valued album reviews. Still, if you knew where to look, there were people who saw the presumptive end of Pitchfork as a cause for celebration and they tended to be artists who existed between, say, 2008-2014 - if not Peak Pitchfork, a point where bands could both be blasted into the stratosphere off one good review or materially impacted by a negative one…but you’d also hear stories about the same artists bitching out their PR teams “because you only got me a 7.2.”
I do wonder what Joe D’Agostino thinks about all of this - I mean, I could straight up ask him, we’ve exchanged emails with each other every now and again since I did the Best New Music review for Why There Are Mountains (I distinctly recall a typo that described “Like Blood Does” as the album “loser” rather than “closer”). You might have noticed that the narrative surrounding the final Cymbals Eat Guitars album framed them as a band with extremely shitty luck, and while some of that had to do with Lenses Alien completely tanking their momentum, a lot had to do with the open secret that LOSE was hours away from getting Best New Music before it got knocked down to a 8.2. Let’s say certain decision makers got trapped in an elevator that day and the BNM stuck…this was 2014, how much impact does this have on Cymbals Eat Guitars? Does Pretty Years get reassessed as a triumphant flex rather than a valiant (and maybe a somewhat thirsty) attempt to reinvent themselves as Philly heartland rockers? Do more than like 30 people show up to the 2017 show I saw them play in San Diego?
And I know, I know, I know, doubling down on the shit luck and shit timing of Empty Country probably doesn’t do them any favors, lord knows how unconvincing it is to see the same five critics yap about how a band is “underrated” every two years. Still, it’s heartbreaking because I know how much effort Joe put into this one and I literally have no idea what else he could do to convince people he’s one of our best living songwriters.
Car Colors - “Old Death (12” Version)”
From my 20th anniversary piece on The Meadowlands -
The best evidence of The Meadowlands’ unique magic isn’t the lack of a proper sequel but rather, Whelan’s debut album as Aeon Station. Observatory was about as close as you can get to an actual Wrens record without being the genuine article; there are many, many profiles that explain why Bissell was the only member not involved, but otherwise, it was a collection of bittersweet, surging, even triumphant indie rock anthems filled with lyrics about missed opportunities and obstacles overcome. Most reviews were cautiously positive, lauding Whelan’s craft while acknowledging the impossible standards to which it was being subjected. But some went right ahead and pointed out the obvious: Observatory wasn’t lacking a certain je ne sais quoi, but something more tangible – Charles Bissell.
So, I stand corrected - this is the closest thing we can get to a Wrens album without it being the genuine article and I’m not just stoked for the Car Colors LP to actually come out, I’m actually hopeful. As in, I think it could actually happen. But let’s be real, I’m hoping that I can feed that an Aeon Station through an AI bot and get a Wrens album.
Flight Mode - “Surprised at All”
Definitely the best 12-song collection of real-deal emo released in 2024, if not necessarily the best album - the only flaw of The Three Times is that it feels like exactly what it is, three EPs bundled together over the span of three or so years. Which is true even if the aim is consistent throughout, which is to emulate Braid, Mineral and the Appleseed Cast, but what if it was just the pretty songs?
Mannequin Pussy - “Nothing Like”
Earmarking the “Mannequin Pussy AI video controversy” for the “worst Music Twitter story” Indiecasties. From what I gather, the response I saw online was wildly disproportionate to what actually happened - MP commissioned a bunch of art from actual human beings and ran it through AI to make some kind of commentary about its uncanny ugliness…and mostly ended up with something that looks like it would run on MTV Amp (not necessarily derogatory). Then again, Mannequin Pussy have existed in the emo/hardcore/etc.-adjacent space for ten years at this point, they should’ve expected this kind of knee-jerk reaction. People forgot about it a day later, which is great, because this is the best song on I Got Heaven, when a billion bands are still going for Siamese Dream, I like when somebody recognizes the brilliance of “Appels & Oranjes.”
Wishy - “Too True”
Remember when newish indie bands could namecheck Lush or The Sundays or Curve as their main influences and that was novel enough to convince you to check them out? That was a fun couple of weeks in 2022, wasn’t it? Lest you think I’m being overly harsh on “shoegaze-adjacent alt-rock with female vocals,” we’ve been going through the same exact thing with dude bands and Deftones and Hum for like the last ten years. That phenomenon pretty much prevented me from ever checking out Failure.
Whether more bands are going for this sound because it’s hot or whether it’s hot because more bands are going for this sound is immaterial, the problem (as with the Power Pop Discussion above) is that these bands were getting MTV and radio airplay in the 90s because they could write a hook in addition to creating a vibe. “Stars” and “Here’s Where the Story Ends” aren’t walking through that door! So the greatest compliment I can give to Wishy (shout to Kevin Krauter, he’ll appear in other, older mixes) is that they are 100% in the Sundays-worship lane and managed to make not just one memorable, standout song but an EP of them - and I’m convinced their best work is probably still ahead of them.
Courting - “The Wedding”
They’re a UK band that made a bubbly indie-funk song with DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ called “We Look Good Together (Big Words)”; it also features the following lyric - “not to get political/but you should love me.” They also don’t think you should compare them to the 1975, which is sorta like that time Action Bronson said “don’t ever say my fuckin’ music sound like Ghost shit.” So, fair enough - in both its sentiment and sound, this is pretty much the UK indie-pop answer to Home is Where’s “Yes! Yes! A Thousand Times Yes!” Or, on the whole, any emo-leaning band in this wave of UK talk-punk is bound to sound like Los Campesinos! and New Last Name is probably the best thing we’ve got going in this lane until we get an actual new LC! Album.
Tapir! - “My God”
Look at this band name, album title and album cover…
You’d be absolutely justified assuming that this is the most 2006 shit imaginable, even if that’s not totally correct - I hear Yellow House-era Grizzly Bear filtered through, say, Mutual Benefit, who themselves once scored a Best New Music like so many other 2006-ish bands, reminding a few of the right writers of the right music at the right time (in their case, early Sufjan and Devendra Banhart, which were the exact opposite of what was hot in 2013).
Bill Ryder-Jones - “Nothing To Be Done”
An album released on Domino with the highest Metacritic score of 2024 shouldn’t ever be “under the radar,” but we’re talking about “it’s from one of the guys from The Coral” - a quintessential “$6.99 sale CD at Best Buy” band that made a bunch of albums I never heard once. If nothing else, Iechyd Da’s strong critical showing is proof of life for mags like MOJO and NME that I’d read in the UVA music library ca. 2001, searching for “singer-songwriter with orchestral flourishes”-type beats. I’ll probably revisit this album more throughout the year to see if more of it sticks, but I could easily hear this song fitting into a mix somewhere between cuts from The Hour of Bewilderbeast and the first Doves album.
Van Morrison - “Sweet Thing”
I realize this is a super normie thing to say, but I really can’t quantify how important Rolling Stone and Spin and Pitchfork Best Albums of the Decade lists were as a discovery tool in my teens and early 20s. And they still can be! But at a certain point, you also realize how even the most well-meaning and/or canon-challenging lists flatten the decade; nearly every single one arcs towards inclusion of popular albums that weren’t critically acclaimed at the time but have been recognized as Important regardless. Meanwhile, albums that were Important at the time might get swapped out for ones whose influence was more of a slow burn. Entire movements and subgenres might get a sole representative, if any at all. The #18 album of any given year was probably a big deal, maybe even huge; but on average, it’s not going to make the cut (for reference, 10,000 Gecs was Pitchfork’s #18 album of 2023).
I considered this as Steve dedicated one of our Indiecast Hall of Fame slots to the Waterboys, a band who I’d occasionally see mentioned as a comparative point in All Music Guide reviews, but never really found the time to dig into. After all, there were still plenty of Best Albums of the 1980s I had yet to discover! In the absence of any effort to prove otherwise, I could live with the assumption they were sort of like mid-80s U2 or Big Country, except they used more stereotypical Irish instrumentation and had a billion ex-members. And…it’s sorta not that far off! But I also hear echoes of what they’re doing in latter day “Big Music” true believers like War on Drugs or Gang of Youths, and their cover of “Sweet Thing” is truly revelatory, an “arena rock Astral Weeks” that I’ve been unwittingly looking for nearly half my life. But that version is too long to fit on this mix, so why not go with the O.G.