Forgetting Sammy Jankis

The Garden Mirror Might Steal Your Charm Epitaph Records

It’s no secret fellas. Rock music is going through some growing pains right now. The landscape is changing and it’s been happening for a while. With hip hop and trap being the current zeitgeist and industry constantly catering to more electronic centric acts it’s not hard to see why. Rock fans don’t particularly help the situation either. With their puritanical nature and unwillingness to compromise it’s sort of tough to see where one of the biggest genres ever will end up in the future. The Garden, however is a punk band, not completely in the traditional sense given their influence and aesthetics but absolutely in how much they simply don’t give a fuck. Mirror Might Steal Your Charm is the 5th release from twin brothers Wyatt and Fletcher Shears aka The Garden and it’s easily their best yet. Packed with sardonic humor, an uncompromisingly idiosyncratic style and a dizzying array of influences, textures and motifs they have crafted one of the most unpredictable punk rock records of the decade.

It should be said early however that this album is absolutely not going to be for everyone. The vocals, are delivered in a consistently sarcastic inflection sometimes rapped, sometimes shouted, sometimes bellowed with bratty energy that draws out every syllable. The songs themselves have a hectic unpredictable nature to them that take multiple listens to commit to memory. There’s techno break beats, show tunes diversions, a healthy dose of hip hop, indie rock. The Garden have never shied away from throwing in everything but the kitchen sink in their music but this time around all of those elements are blended together more seamlessly than ever.

“Stallion” does a great job of establishing the tone for the record, being a completely unstable opening track that alternates between beach rock and hardcore punk impeccably. It also introduces the albums recurring motif of nearly every song having two contrasting components fighting each other for lead melody. With a few exceptions such as the touching closer track, this is a trick The Garden uses a lot and to good effect. “Shameless Shadow” has a rockabilly-esque saunter that transitions in between a show tunes theme worthy of a pair of jazz hands. A similarly jazzy groove is effectively used on the late album track “Stylish Spit”. The inexplicable mid album cut “ :( “ is one of the weirdest and wildest tracks with it’s choppy synth-led pounce and a hilarious skit where a man gets shot through a phone call with a ray gun.

As freakish as most of this is there are some very clear points of inspiration The Garden blends into what they call *Vada Vada. Devo is a pretty obvious one, modern electronic music is a pretty big one as well. Late 90’s techno and break beat appear on a few cuts like the speedy “A Message for Myself”. “Who am I Going to Share All this Wine With” is almost a dead ringer for an Iceage instrumental circa You’re Nothing era. Hardcore punk flashes in and out of these tracks and on one cut, namely “Make a Wish”, they give their take on, dare I say, trap music. The kick drum hits you right into the heart while Wyatt’s voice raps out nearly incoherent lyrics about drunken wizards whispering in your ear.

The Garden could easily be written off as a gimmick band and I get that a lot of people are going to see this album as another entry in their pantheon nonsensical albums. However, the critics saying this are somewhat right. Some of this content doesn’t make sense but maybe it doesn’t need to. “Make a Wish” seems to comment on the idea of needing songs to make sense. “Call the Dogs Out”, the albums fantastic lead single, delves into the idea of having your own little safe space to be creative and unique. Declaratively saying if someone shows up uninvited you can ‘let the dogs out’ and tell them to beat it. “A Message For Myself” ends with the succinct monologue saying that everyone is equal and nothing you do makes any more or less human than anybody else. In spite of the nonsensical nature of the music the general theme seems to be that you can do whatever you want, fuck it. You have one life to live and be as weird as you feel like you need to be. It’s a simple message but it’s something that can be sadly forgotten amongst the rat race.

Mirror Might Steal Your Charm is an album that checks all the boxes. This is a record that is wild, creative, well written and has an undeniable pulse to it that is severely lacking in modern rock music. Although, there are a few stylistic choices that go slightly awry. The insistence on using synthetic horns can be pretty overbearing and often makes the album veer into overly chintzy territory. Namely on the track “Banana Peel” where the horns that drive the melody obnoxiously honk and plod throughout the duration of the cut. The lyrics are cute however, that is if you’re as much of a sucker for food metaphors as I am. The closer “No Destination” wraps things up on an touching note. The Garden’s take on the old adage of “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey” comes across surprisingly elegantly. Perhaps there is no destination in life, perhaps there doesn’t have to be. As long as you’re enjoying your time on this earth then no one can take that away from you. Mirror Might Steal Your Charm is a love letter to the freakier side of life it’s fun, charming, grotesque, cute, obnoxious, and psychotic all at the same time. More often than not, it’s also brilliant.

9.2/10

Top Tier: “Make a Wish”, “Call the Dogs Out”, “ :( “, “Who am I Going to Share All this Wine With”, “No Destination”, “Stylish Spit”, “Good News”, “Voodoo Luck”

Meh Tier: “Banana Peel”

If you liked this, give one of these a shot!

Guerilla Toss - GT Ultra Ariel Pink - Pom Pom Zach Hill - FACE TAT JPEGMAFIA - Veteran

Aight love yall, have a nice day

*Vada Vada - taken from The Garden’s official website:

Car Seat Headrest Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) Matador Records

Will Toledo was for a long time the sole member of the Seattle based diy-indie rock act Car Seat Headrest. A music project once so doggedly lo-fi it was dubbed after Will’s affinity for recording vocal sessions sitting in a car in empty parking lots using only a laptop speaker. A good bit has changed since then. After numerous successes on the Bandcamp platform Will would go on to secure a deal with Matador records and Car Seat Headrest’s 2016 release, Teens of Denial, would go on to be my personal favorite album of that year with a perfect 10/10 score. However, Will and the Car Seat Headrest moniker, have made themselves a name long before my dumbass started fawning over them. Will has now been given complete freedom to do as he wishes on his label and hitting us with a surprise left hook Will has chosen to perfect the record that birthed him an indie-rock icon, 2010’s Twin Fantasy.

Twin Fantasy can aptly be described as a cult classic. It was an emotionally raw, tangled and messy album that is stylistically matched with the abrasively lo-fi clutter of it’s recording. Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) is a complete overhaul of the original 2010 recording replete with his full band, fancy microphones, added instrumentation, studio equipment and professional mixing/mastering. There’s certainly a few lyrical detours, uses of different monologues, and an overall sense of completion in the album’s story arc that differs from the original but the songs and structures, for the most part, are left completely in tact. It’s a smart move on his part. This rework manages to pan out exceedingly well because of it’s adherence to the fantastic source material. This album plays it safe but in the best way possible. I could really only see fans really jumping ship on this reissue if the only reason they cared for Car Seat Headrest in the first place is due to the lo-fi aesthetic. I, however, find that to be a somewhat shallow reason to follow an artist, but to each their own.

Regardless of the updated, polished sheen of this record, Twin Fantasy remains a tangled emotional mess of an album. In comparison to the pointed 20-something anxiety of Teens of Denial, Twin Fantasy is a loose concept album about teenage love, sexual confusion, regret, compassion, anger, identity, sex, regret, drugs and there’s also a strange motif about dogs that I haven’t quite figured out yet. It is a lot to take in, a lot to dissect and think about, with much of being so personal to Will it might never really be completely understood. Inversely, when it isn’t being heady and self-referential this album can be charming, obvious and quaint even. There are frenzied 13 minute long stream-of-consciousness diatribes as well as sweet, to-the-point little motifs like “Stop smoking, we love you” or “you and me wont be alone no more, don’t worry”. The latter of those, off of the fan favorite “Sober to Death”, switches jerkingly between time signatures while Will longingly wails out the words with a passionate fervor.

There’s also several curious theme about twins, brothers, lovers and things that connect people like hugs or perhaps cursive handwriting as mentioned on the dance-punk anthem “Nervous Young Inhumans”. The two longest tracks that bookend the album act as twin songs to each other, exemplifying this twin/brother/sister theme of the album. The first of which coming after the epic yet sober power-pop intro “My Boy” is titled “Beach Life in Death”. This multi-faceted monolith switches from a garage rock chain of confessionals, to a heart wrenchingly heavy and dreamlike midsection, then back into a rough and ragged beach rock explosion. It’s beautiful, just as messy and visceral as a song about finding your first love should be. The feelings expressed here are chaotic, spastic as Will details this compulsiveness and erratic although still jubilant inner monologue. It’s twin song is “Famous Prophets” toward the end of the record, contrarily it is a classy and measured send off to these feelings and possibly to the person directly. It’s 16 minutes long and doesn’t waste a second, the final phase of this track being possibly the most heartbreaking moments on the record.

In spite of all the heartache there are several charming and catchy moments offered up in the midsection of this record. The adorably cheeky and self-aware love song “Cute Thing” is indie rock at it’s finest. As is the sublimely groovy track “Bodys” with it’s slick programmed drums that blast throughout it’s duration. Both of these tracks showcase Will’s talent for building satisfying crescendo’s and singalong tunes able to move a crowd into tears or even a mosh pit. “Sober to Death” and “High to Death”, also two brother songs to each other, function as being two of the saddest as well. One demonstrating how misery loves company and the other about how compassion does too. Whether you’re down and out, lost in love, or just really lonely, physical human connection is one of the most important and under appreciated facets of life. The refrain of “Keep smoking, I love you” on “High to Death” will likely always water my eyes. Early in the album Will is worried for this person’s well being because he loves them so much and by the end of everything they’ve been through he just wants them to be happy. Keep smoking, stop smoking, doesn’t matter at this point, do what makes you happy.

The albums eponymous closing track is a unique take on the ephemeral nature of expressing feelings through music. The fantasy is over. The two people still yearn for each other but in a muted way. No romance, no sex just the stark reality of the situation. However, Will isn’t alone this time. He has the experience, as well as this great album to show for it. Whatever happened, it happened, it is what it is and it’s all just lyrics now, do with this information what you will. For me it’s another fantastic and strikingly relatable record from Will Toledo that I’m glad has gotten this a well deserved revision. Twin Fantasy has stood the test of time for very good reason. Sure some of the monologues might be a bit tedious, but they don’t really bog down the record and often times they offer a lot of interesting context to the tangle of emotions on display. As the album ends and repeated mantra of “When I come back you’ll still be here” comes in it becomes unclear whether he’s referring to the subject of the album, the emotional trauma at the subject of his songs or perhaps even the audience itself. I can say confidently though if it’s the latter of those options, he is absolutely correct.

9.0/10

Top Tier: “Beach Life in Death”, “Sober to Death”, “High to Death”, “Famous Prophets (Stars)”, “Nervous Young Inhumans”, “Bodys”, “Twin Fantasy (Those Boys)”

Meh Tier: uhhhh… shitttt… If I had to pick I guess probably the closing monologue of “Nervous Young Inhumans” or “My Boy” but I like “My Boy” a lot so I guess the first choice.

If this interests you check some of these out:

Sun Kil Moon - Benji

Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial

Mitski - Bury Me at Makeout Creek

Alex G - DSU

Here’s a link to my last Car Seat Headrest review if you wanna check that out:

http://chesterfieldstings.tumblr.com/post/145275393540/car-seat-headrest-teens-of-denial-last-year-lo-fi#notes

Jeff Rosenstock Post-  Polyvinyl Records

The year is 2016. It’s one month before the election of Donald Trump and Jeff Rosenstock, the Long Island based punk rock renegade, is about to release one of the most essential punk albums of the decade. The record entitled WORRY, the follow up to Jeff’s sleeper hit We Cool which was released the year prior. On WORRY Jeff displayed deft talent for encapsulating the cultural paranoia and anxiety of the incoming future, as well as weaving in sardonic unease within his own personal life. By stringing together songs with colliding Abbey Road-esque structures, utilizing a dizzying array of different genres, moods, themes Jeff and his band found a way to achieve solidarity with his similarly disillusioned audience. Post- is a very natural successor to WORRY in terms of mood, subject matter and style. However, not always in substance.

Post- finds Jeff touching on similar subjects as WORRY with a similar amount of pathos. “USA” bursts the door open with Jeff’s uniquely passionate bleat of adjectives describing his maladjustment. “Dumbfounded, downtrodden and dejected/Crestfallen, grief-stricken and exhausted”. It’s energetic, it’s anguished and towards the middle of it’s daunting 7.30 minute runtime it becomes dreamlike and serene. The repeated mantra of being “tired and bored” is palpable and soothing, building to a fine triumphant chorus even if it does take a while to get there.

“Yr Throat” is a fantastic song with a soaring and uplifting breakdown. The lyrics detail personal inabilities to communicate and juxtaposes them with political statements about holding people responsible for the their words. The track makes sly digs at politics that go over very well. “All This Useless Energy” strikes a similar tone with it’s mix of politics and personal problems and offers another passionate chorus. While “Powerlessness” follows suit and becomes emblematic of this exact problem. Begging the question of how can you solve the worlds problem when you can’t even solve you’re own?

The middle of the album begins to drift from post-election grief and into tracks with seemingly much lower stakes. “TV Stars” is a slow paced misstep that takes shots at celebrity culture in an somewhat uncreative way. “Melba” keeps up with the catchiness of the best of Jeff’s work but the message feels like too much familiar territory to really be electrifying.  “Beating My Head Against the Wall” also feels slightly underwritten and simply doesn’t add up to a lot. We know Jeff has a lot to say and he usually says it very well. It’s disappointing he misses the opportunity here.

“9/10” is the second to last track on the record and ranks as one of his best ballads. Jeff’s vocal melody, featuring best friend Laura Stevenson on the chorus, really pulls at the heart strings. The album ends with “Let Them Win” an 11 minute track that definitely does not justify it’s run time. Which is regrettable considering Jeff’s last record featured a second half which could be listened to as a long 20 minute song. The message frankly isn’t all that significant either. Which sucks. Jeff is an extremely topical and creative voice in punk rock and I feel he has more nuanced things to say about the war of ideas going on in this country other than “We’re not gonna let them win, Oh no, They’re not gonna win”.

All in all Post- is a fitting entry to Jeff Rosenstock’s catalogue. It has plenty of great moments unfortunately it also has some of the most lackluster ones Jeff has recorded so far. I suppose it is nice to get a look inside Jeff’s head post-election and it’s always nice getting a feeling of solidarity from one of the sharpest voices out there. I just feel like we could have been given something great as opposed to something good. Then again, I would vote on something decent over nothing at all and you have to pick your battles real wisely now a days.

#Rosenstock2020

6.9/10

Top Tier: “Yr Throat”, “9/10”, “Powerlessness”, “All This Useless Energy”

Meh Tier: “TV Stars”

If this interests you maybe try one of these out!

Reinventing Axl Rose - Against Me!

Greatest Hits - Remo Drive

Painted Shut - Hop Along

WORRY. - Jeff Rosenstock