slack wire

We're still deep in the throes of summer, but here comes Cinder Well like a foreshadowing, a harbinger of fall. Don't let the song title fool you, for she can make songs that are ostensibly about the warmer months sound like an autumn chill passing through.

Super late this week as I'm traveling for work, here's some achingly gorgeous alt-country. The dazed, awestruck disbelief of love permeates like falling rain outside the window.

Lucy's best song in years is a sun-dazed meditation on death and loss which unravels like a summer afternoon. Coming paired with a beautiful, life-affirming video tribute to Richmond is a nice bonus.

that this country is unequal still?

The Pheebz is back with a song and video that feels laser-targeted at misfit nerds who played too much Runescape.

RIP to video game music legend Bobby Prince. E1M1 AKA At Doom's Gate is the one everybody knows, one of the most recognizable pieces of video game music of all time, an absolutely immortal banger, but to me, E1M8 AKA Sign of Evil is the one that really captures the soul of Doom. The sense of utter desolation, completely alone, knee-deep in the dead on the shores of Hell.

I'm not a sports guy, but I am a New Yorker, and it's been hard not to get swept up in Knicks fever this past week. Everyone's been bumping Empire State of Mind, which I insist is a bad song, bump this instead! It sounds like New York in the summertime. I'm not a native New Yorker myself, but my daughter is, so this one goes out to her. Knicks in 5.

Dreamy, nostalgic, vaguely mathy, vaguely video-game-inspired instrumental rock by some of the dudes from Tomb Mold (???). I guess when you need a break from psychedelic death metal about intergalactic slugs, you make breezy jams that sound like a warm summer night playing Mega Man with your buds.

Coming in super late because I was at my friends' wedding last weekend. This one goes out to them. If you know, you know. There will be a light on in the tavern, always.

I feel summer creeping in...

RIP to the clown prince of horniness. Strokin' is one of the funniest songs ever made, a true American classic.

Walking through Flatiron and Chelsea on my way home late last night, past the place where I worked for almost 10 years which is now long gone, in a part of town I haven't been to in years, listening to this song, feelin' like a stranger.

Thin fuckin' Lizzy. That's it. That's the post.

This is rage against the dying of the light in literal form. As far as swan songs go, it's an absolute motherfucker. RIP Tompa. Hail Satan.

It's been a minute since a Kacey song really clicked with me, but I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm a sucker for some pedal steel swells. Throw in some lyrics about fucking off and dropping out of society, and you've got a keeper!

Converge have absolutely no business sounding this feral this deep into their career. Dudes are unstoppable.

Goregrind is not usually my thing, but Lureplasm are so sneakily melodic and surprisingly bouncy that I don't even mind the gurgle vox!