#sunset rubdown

Pairing: Gojo x f!Reader

Spoilers if you haven't gotten through the Shibuya Incident yet. Synopsis: Your boyfriend lover best friend and fellow Tokyo Jujutsu High teacher Gojo Satoru just activated Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void, saving hundreds of humans, annihilating thousands of curses, and changing the course of your lives forever. A/N: Inspired by Sunset Rubdown's incredible song Nightingale/December Song, I'm tapping into my Gojo obsession. In-universe, all angst. It's just a tiny little scene, should I write more?

You are a vast explosion, and I am the embers.

"Satoru."

He lifted his head at your voice, breathing heavy. His eyes were wide. Gaze searing. Feral. The residual energy of his attack still crackled through the air like lightning, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. The transfigured humans were decimated; the platform left grisly.

You knew it then. Could see it in the nearly imperceptible shake of his hands, both bloodied, one limply holding some cursed spirit's torn body part, the other reaching out towards you. He stepped forward, blinking as if coming out of a daze, dropping the limb to pull you roughly into his chest, forehead falling onto your shoulder. You felt it then, sure as his pounding pulse. The limits of The Honored One could not be contained. Not by his meticulous calculations and planning. Not by your heart.

You thought you had seen it all. Thought you and he could weather anything. Riko's murder. Suguru's defection, his death, his absence that still haunted you all. Colleagues hospitalized. Colleagues buried. The students—children—so easily thrown away by jujutsu families and higher-ups who both coveted and feared their power beyond anything else. 

He turned his head, lips touching your neck for a ghost of a kiss. "You need to go," he murmured into your collar, voice raspy. You didn't want to leave him. Had just obliterated god-knows-how-many curses yourself to make it to this level and witness the unimaginable attack he had just unleashed, one of such staggering magnitude it shouldn't have been possible without mass human casualties. You were partners in the field, in life... even if that part was, well, complicated to say the least. But you didn't argue. And when a seismic boom from one of the floors above rattled the entire terminal, you didn't hesitate. Didn't squeeze him in an embrace or kiss his pretty soft lips or even say goodbye. Without a glance back you turned and ran towards the pandemonium, one thing on your mind: your students.

Satoru didn't need backup. He was The Strongest. Whatever curses remained on this floor, he could handle. 

Had you looked back, you would have seen it. Had you stayed half a minute longer, you would have been able to intercede. Satoru wouldn't have been caught off guard. He wouldn't have mistaken Kenjaku for Suguru. He wouldn't have been trapped in the Prison Realm. 

You wouldn't have had to learn how to navigate a world without Gojo Satoru.

And though your flames are quick and mean, they will not last the year, but expire like a sudden falling star.

Before I start this post, I should mention this was my final project for my Music Appreciation class and I've basically just reformatted the paper for Tumblr. Also I have never used Tumblr before so please bear with me... Thanks, let's get to it now!

Introduction

Spencer Krug is a Canadian musician mainly known as a singer, songwriter, and keyboardist, though he occasionally plays the piano, guitar (both acoustic and electric), synthesizer, accordion, bass, and kick drum.[1] His first instrument was the piano, which he started playing when he was 12.[2] By the age of 15, he already had a drum set, guitar, bass, amps, and an organ in his bedroom. Around that time, he mainly listened to Fugazi and Sebadoh.[3] Some of his other influences are David Bowie, Jeff Buckley, The Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Erik Satie, Rachel Grimes, and Dan Bejar.[2] [4]

Spencer Krug first attended college in Vancouver where he “screwed around in arts and humanities,” before doing a few years of music school in Vancouver, then at Concordia University in Montreal.[3] There, he studied music composition and creative writing until he dropped out.[5] He has been part of six bands, as well as releasing solo work under the alias Moonface and his own name. Through these projects, he has contributed to nearly 30 releases,[1] which can make it difficult to decide where to begin listening to his extensive discography.

The intent of this post is to break down each of the projects he’s taken part in to (hopefully) make it easier for people to decide which project they’d be most interested in listening to. This post will include general information on each project as well as a description of how their releases generally sound, their similarities to other projects, and their differences from other projects.

Two Tonne Bowlers[6]

Years Active: 1994

Members: Jeffrey Allport, Kent Reimer, Norm Wickett, Scott Marshall, Simon Culver, Spencer Krug, Tom Reimer, Tony Bobbit

Releases: Mantifiluss (1994)

Genre: Reggae

Style: Ska

Two Tonne Bowlers is the first band Spencer Krug was ever in, but consequently the band there is the least information on, as he was part of it while in high school, when he was around 17. Spencer Krug was the keyboardist of the group; the other members played guitar, electric bass, trombone, saxophone, and the drums.[7]

As the band’s name indicates, their music has a two-tone ska style. Two-tone music is Jamaican ska and reggae music mixed with elements of punk rock music,[8] so Two Tonne Bowlers is one of the bands Spencer Krug contributed to that sounds furthest from his later indie rock projects, especially since Two Tonne Bowlers lacked certain punk rock elements, such as distorted guitars.

Mantifiluss is, in my opinion, the most playful and cheerful-sounding music Spencer Krug has put out. It feels like something to dance to without having chord progressions or lyrics that make you ponder complex concepts, unlike many of his other works. Another difference with other bands he’s been in is that he usually sings nearly all or a good part of the vocals, yet he doesn’t sing any of the vocals on Mantifiluss, apart from on the album’s 9th “hidden” track.[9]

Fifths of Seven[10]

Years Active: 1995-2005

Members: Beckie Foon, Rachel Levine, Spencer Krug

Releases: Spry from Bitter Anise Folds (2005)

Genre: Instrumental

Style: Modern Classical, Post-Rock

Fifths of Seven was formed in 1995 in Montreal,[11] but Spencer Krug didn’t join until around 2004-2005 when Rachel Levine and Becky Foon received a grant from the Canadian government and hired him as a third member.[12] Together they wrote their first and only album, Spry from Bitter Anise Folds, which was recorded in 2005 at Breakglass Studios.[11] The group is made up of Beckie Foon as the cellist, Rachel Levine as the mandolinist, and Spencer Krug as the pianist and accordionist.[13]

Although Spencer Krug has composed other instrumental songs, this is the only fully instrumental album he has worked on. Vocals and lyrics usually have an important role in Spencer Krug’s other releases, but the cinematic melodies in Spry from Bitter Anise Folds’ are able to tell the stories lyrics would. The droning cello, sparse to robust piano, and somber mandolin create a melancholic and fragile atmosphere.[14] No single instrument dominates the music, as each instrument takes turns leading and accompanying throughout each piece. The unusual combination of these instruments gives this chamber music an Eastern European folk music sound.[15] Although this group’s sound is vastly different from Spencer Krug’s Indie Rock bands, there are similarities in the way the songs are on the more experimental and avant-garde side of their genre.

Frog Eyes[16]

Years Active: 2001–2018, 2022–present

Members: Carey Mercer, Melanie Campbell, Shyla Seller, Dante Decaro, Grayson Walker, John Paton, Matt Skilling, McCloud Zicmuse, Megan Boddy, Michael Rak, Ryan Beattie, Spencer Krug, Terri Upton

Releases: The Bloody Hand (2002), Split w/ Jerk with a Bomb single (2002), Emboldened Navigator EP (2003), The Golden River (2003), Ego Scriptor (2004), The Folded Palm (2004), The Future Is Inter-Disciplinary or Not at All EP (2006), Tears of the Valedictorian (2007), Frog Eyes / Hello Blue Roses single (2008), Paul's Tomb: A Triumph (2010), Carey's Cold Spring (2013), Pickpocket's Locket (2015), Violet Psalms (2018), The Bees (2022)

Genre: Rock

Style: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, Avantgarde, Art Rock, Experimental

Frog eyes was formed when Carey Mercer and Spencer Krug happened to meet and play guitar and organ in someone’s basement. They didn’t know each other well but both needed roommates, so they decided to move in together along with Carey’s wife, Melanie Campbell. They didn’t discuss forming a band; Spencer Krug playing Carey Mercer’s songs with him and Melanie Campbell happened naturally because they were living together.[12] Micheal Rak, a band member from Carey Mercer’s previous band, also joined the group and together they recorded The Bloody Hand and the Emboldened Navigator EP in 2001.[17] Carey Mercer played the guitar, Spencer Krug the keyboard/piano, Melanie Campbell the drums, and Michael Rak the bass.[12] Shortly after recording their first album, Spencer Krug left the band when he moved to Toronto for college, then later — in 2003 — Montreal, where he ended up forming Wolf Parade. He reunited with the band in 2006 and recorded The Future is Inter-Disciplinary or Not At All EP and the Tears of the Valedictorian album.[17]

On the album and EP recorded in 2001, the bass playing and the drumming were simple while the guitars were chaotic, and Spencer Krug was “able to lay [his] patterns somewhere in between all of that,” as he explained in a Last Donut of the Night interview. Carey Mercer was the songwriter, and Spencer Krug didn’t modify the structure he wrote but he did add things to it.[12] Carey Mercer’s songwriting heavily influenced Spencer Krug’s own songwriting, which feels most obvious when listening to Sunset Rubdown.[18] Around the time he was first playing with Frog Eyes, Spencer Krug wrote some of his own experimental music and messed around with computer programs like Logic Audio. Much of this music turned into early Sunset Rubdown songs that he put out himself once he was in Montreal.[12] One of the songs from Sunset Rubdown’s first album “Sol’s Song,” even became a song on Frog Eyes’ The Golden River, “A Song Once Mine Now No Longer Mine.”

Frog Eyes is also similar to Sunset Rubdown in their songs’ unconventional structures and lead singers’ powerful vocals. However “powerful vocals” is an understatement when it comes to Carey Mercer’s vocals which are as full of energy as they could be and filled with screams, yelps, and growls. But his striking vocals don’t make the rest of the band any less important to its sound; Melanie Campbell’s pounding drumming, Spencer Krug’s twinkling keyboard, Carey Mercer (and in 2006, McCloud Zicmuse)’s chaotic guitar(s), and Michael Rak's grounding bass are all essential to bringing each song together.[19] As for Frog Eyes’ lack of discernible structure, the songs’ messiness allows the ideas and feelings behind the music and its lyrics to truly shine.

Wolf Parade[20]

Years Active: 2003–2011, 2016–present

Members: Arlen Thompson, Dan Boeckner, Hadji Bakara, Spencer Krug, Timothy Kingsbury, Dante Decaro

Releases: Wolf Parade EP (2003), Wolf Parade EP (2004), Wolf Parade EP (2005), Apologies To The Queen Mary (2005), At Mount Zoomer (2008), Semi-Precious Stone single (2010), Expo 86 (2010), EP 4 (2016), Cry Cry Cry (2017), Thin Mind (2020)

Genre: Rock

Style: Indie Rock, Progressive Rock, Post-Punk Revival

Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner met in Victoria, British Columbia when they were both working at the same pub to make ends meet.[21] When they were both living in Montreal in 2003, they formed Wolf Parade along with Arlen Thompson and Hadji Bakara. The band was started when Spencer Krug was called to play a show opening for Melon Galia and Arcade Fire but he had no band. So he called Dan Boeckner and they wrote songs with a drum machine playing through computer speakers to have something for the show. About a week before the show, Spencer Krug offered Arlen Thompson to play a show that Saturday. They rehearsed as a full band the day before and the day of the show.[22] For that first show, they were only a trio, but the band was later made up of Spencer Krug as the lyricist, vocalist, and keyboardist; Dan Boeckner as the lyricist, vocalist, and guitarist; Arlen Thompson as the drummer; Hadji Bakara as the keyboardist and thereminist; Timothy Kingsbury as the bassist; and Dante Decaro as the guitarist and bassist.[23] Wolf Parade went on an indefinite hiatus in 2011, but reunited in 2016 and released their fourth album, Cry Cry Cry, in 2017.[24]

When Dan Boeckner was asked to describe the band’s sound in a Montreal Mirror interview not long after the band started, he explained that “ostensibly, we're just making folk music without any of the musical connotations of folk music.” Their sound was influenced by their lack of budget (and therefore limited equipment); they used keyboards because they didn’t have the funds to buy other instruments — initially, Dan Boeckner didn’t even have a guitar.[25] Sub Pop noticed the band and signed a contract with them, giving them a much bigger budget for Apologies To The Queen Mary than the 20 dollars they recorded their EP with.[26]

Their first album, Apologies To The Queen Mary, was an immediate success, and although they had all been in bands before, they had never had this level of popularity until then.[21] The album’s writing and singing are split evenly between the two frontmen, Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner. The two have distinct styles and consequently were different in the music they wanted to play, so they both had to make compromises to make cohesive albums.[27] Apologies To The Queen Mary is the most cohesive of all their albums, while later albums let each members’ own elements and styles stand out more.[28] Hadji Bakara and Spencer Krug both play keyboards, but in very different ways, according to Spencer Krug in an Exclaim! interview, “Hadji is one of the only elements of the band that's always variating,” while “Dan and [him] work in locked-in patterns.” Dante Decaro, as the second guitarist and fifth member, has more freedom to experiment within the songs musically.[26] And Arlen Thompson’s exuberant drums fill the songs with energy and set the mood when starting off songs, such as in “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son.” Although Wolf Parade is the least experimental indie rock band Spencer Krug has been in, they still find ways to make familiar rock elements come together in an interesting way in each of their songs.

Just like one of Sunset Rubdown’s songs from their first album had ended up on a Frog Eyes album, another song from their debut album, “I’ll Believe In Anything You’ll Believe In Anything,” ended up on Wolf Parade’s debut album as “I’ll Believe In Anything.”[29] Listening to the two versions side by side really makes the differences between Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown clear. Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe In Anything” is more harmonious and polished, but to be fair, Sunset Rubdown’s first album is their most experimental and least polished — not that it’s a negative thing.

Sunset Rubdown[30]

Years Active: 2005–2009, 2022–present

Members: Camilla Wynne Ingr, Jordan Robson Cramer, Michael Doerksen, Nicholas Merz, Spencer Krug, Mark Nicol

Releases: Snake's Got A Leg (2005), Sunset Rubdown EP (2006), Shut Up I Am Dreaming (2006), Random Spirit Lover (2007), Introducing Moonface single (2009), Dragonslayer (2009), Always Happy to Explode (2024)

Genre: Rock

Style: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, Art Rock

Sunset Rubdown’s first demos and album started as a solo project for Spencer Krug to have more freedom making experimental recordings. Spencer Krug explained in a Last Donut of the Night interview that he would “do shit like put pieces of paper between the hammers and the strings so it sounded insane.” Then he’d pull a sample from that and “pile it up into a weird shape on the screen, press play, and listen to what it sounded like. [He]’d build a two-dimensional pyramid out of a three-second sample,” to create songs.[12] Along with its experimental nature, the production (especially on earlier tracks) is very lo-fi, because Spencer Krug didn’t have any funds just like on Wolf Parade’s early EPs. The solo project that was Sunset Rubdown turned into a band in 2006, and what was once an exploration of sound and textures became an exploration of lyrics and structure.[31] The band members’ roles have varied depending on the album, but Spencer Krug has played the piano, keyboard, synth, acoustic guitar, accordion, and kick drum; Camilla Wynne has played the keyboard, omnichord, q-chord, and percussion; Nicholas Merz has played the bass and drums; Jordan Robson Cramer has played the drums, electric guitar, keyboard, and percussion; Michael Doerksen has played the electric guitar, bass, synthesizers, and drums; and Mark Nicol has played the bass and drums. All the members apart from Jordan Robson Cramer and Mark Nicol have sung some of the vocals, but the lead singer is Spencer Krug and Camilla Wynne is usually the one who does the backing vocals.[32] After releasing and touring their 2009 album, Dragonslayer, Sunset Rubdown went on an indefinite hiatus. In 2023, Spencer Krug had a dream that the band were back together and having fun. When he woke up, disappointed that it was a dream, he decided to email the members, and they all replied that they were willing to try getting the band back together. So they started with hanging out and making music, then relearning their old songs, then doing a reunion tour in 2023, and finally — after 15 years — making and releasing a new album.[33]

Progressively through each record, Sunset Rubdown’s music has become more put together and polished. The first album, Snake's Got A Leg, was curated from lo-fi bedroom recordings Spencer Krug had made in the early 2000s.[34] For their second album, Shut Up I Am Dreaming, the band reworked some of the songs from their debut album as well as writing new ones, and each song sounded more complete. But as Spencer Krug put it in an Exclaim! interview, the album was more of a “hodgepodge of songs than a fully realised album.” This changed in their third album, Random Spirit Lover, which was completely cohesive as a whole. Before recording the album, the band had already decided on the track list and they recorded it in that order, refusing to record a track until the previous one was finished.[35] Spencer Krug’s imaginative and storytelling lyrics particularly shine in this band, especially on theatrical-sounding songs like the ones on Random Spirit Lover. Random Spirit Lover was very elaborate musically and had a heavily overdubbed instrumentation,[35] so they decided to go another direction for their fourth album, Dragonslayer. Spencer Krug had an objective to write songs better so that they could stand alone and be played on anything, and that is clear when listening to Dragonslayer. In 2009, Spencer Krug explained in a Drowned in Sound interview that he felt the band was “at the pinnacle of complexity, and to make it creatively interesting, the next logical thing to do would be to take things away.”[31] After their hiatus, Sunset Rubdown released their fifth and latest album, Always Happy to Explode, which does sound less complex and musically busy than the previous records. The tracks on Always Happy to Explode were originally songs Spencer Krug had posted on his Patreon as solo work until Sunset Rubdown had a reunion tour and rewrote the songs together. But using some of Spencer Krug’s solo songs didn’t make the process of writing the album any different; all Sunset Rubdown albums have been songs that Spencer Krug wrote on piano or guitar and then brought to the rest of the members to arrange and add on to them as a band.[33]

Sunset Rubdown’s two most recent albums have more of a progressive rock style — closer to Wolf Parade — than their earlier albums which sound more experimental and artsy. Still, the two bands are quite different; Spencer Krug compared writing with both in an Exclaim! interview, “The band in Sunset Rubdown has the ability to be quieter than Wolf Parade and be more patient… I know that Sunset Rubdown can be more dynamic. We can play more sorts of twisty song structures and let it prog out a bit more without losing patience. And Wolf Parade just blows things out. Even when I write a quiet song on the guitar and take it to them, a month later I'm banging it out on the piano as hard as I can. And that's what Wolf Parade does well, so you might as well just go with it, right?”[35]

Swan Lake[36]

Years Active: 2006–2009

Members: Carey Mercer, Daniel Bejar, Spencer Krug

Releases: Beast Moans (2006), Enemy Mine (2009)

Genre: Rock

Style: Indie Rock, Experimental

Spencer Krug formed Swan Lake with two old friends, Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes and Dan Bejar of Destroyer and the New Pornographers. They had already been collaborating for years when the band formed, with Spencer Krug being an on-and-off member of Frog Eyes, and Dan Bejar picking Frog Eyes as his backing band for Destroyer album Your Blues, touring with them, and recording an EP with them. Additionally, Spencer Krug was roommates with both. First with Dan Bejar in the late 90s, then he moved to Victoria, met Carey Mercer, and became roommates with him in the early 2000s, around the time they started Frog Eyes. It was during the Destroyer/Frog Eyes Europe tour that they all played together and that the idea to make an album together first came up.[37] Throughout their two albums, Carey Mercer played the electric guitar, keyboard, and drums, Dan Bejar played the electric guitar, Spencer Krug played the keyboard, drums, and bass, and they all sang vocals.[38]

Each of the members wrote their own songs — having the chord progression, main vocal melody, lyrics, etc., complete — before recording them together.[39] Though compared to Sunset Rubdown, Spencer Krug tried to keep his ideas very loose so that the other two could fill in the gaps. Because the lyrics came from three different people, they had to unify the albums through the instrumentation.[38] At first, none of them were sure how to approach the project, until they decided to just go into the recording room and sing with an acoustic guitar. Once they had the tracks, Spencer Krug and Carey Mercer did the instrumentation, arrangements, and mixing. Initially, they considered Melanie Campbell as the drummer, but after watching the early sessions, she decided not to join the group. So to create the drum line, they recorded each part of the drums individually and put it all together during the mixing. “It makes for a pretty jerky drum track…it’s quite unsettling,” Carey Mercer commented in a PopMatters interview.[39]

Although Carey Mercer and Spencer Krug are often compared, especially because of their voice, they both feel like their aesthetics are quite different. Carey Mercer explained in an interview from Exclaim! that he has “this idea of weaving 20 different melodies, and [Spencer] wants everything to turn into one very cohesive whole,” and he especially likes “the parts on the record where you can feel all of [their] wills murking about.” In the same interview, Dan Bejar describes Carey Mercer as having “a kind of total disregard for melody, and a total insistence on it at the same time.”[40] Dan Bejar believes his strengths are in his lyrics and delivery of them but that he lacks any kind of musical sophistication, while Spencer Krug thinks his strengths are in his sophistication with the music and instruments but that he can’t write lyrics as poetically as Dan Bejar, and Carey Mercer feels that he equally works on both.[39]

Swan Lake’s first album, Beast Moans, was weavings of each of the members’ styles, often creating layer upon layer of various melodies and stylistics, sometimes creating a dissonant sound. On the other hand, their second album, Enemy Mine, is more stripped down which makes the melodies clearer, and it has a more deliberate approach to their collaboration.[41] This more stripped-down sound is most noticeable when comparing the song “Paper Lace” on the Enemy Mine album and the version on Sunset Rubdown’s Dragonslayer, where the instruments are a lot more prominent and feel more dense.

Moonface[42]

Years Active: 2010-2018, 2022

Alias: Spencer Krug

Releases: Dreamland EP: Marimba and Shit-Drums (2010), Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped (2011), The Way You Wish You Could Live In The Storm single (2011), Moonface With Siinai – Heartbreaking Bravery (2012), Julia With Blue Jeans On (2013), City Wrecker EP (2014), Moonface & Siinai – My Best Human Face (2016), This One's for the Dancer & This One's for the Dancer's Bouquet (2018), The Minotaur Instrumentals (2022)

Genre: Rock

Style: Indie Rock, Experimental, Avantgarde, Electronic

As Moonface is an alias Spencer Krug recorded solo work (apart from the collaborative albums with Siinai) under, I’ve combined the paragraphs on it and his other solo work below to avoid having two very repetitive sections.

Solo Work[43]

Years Active: 2019-present

Releases: Fading Graffiti (2021), Red Dress / Nightswimming EP (2021), Twenty Twenty Twenty Twenty One (2022), I Just Drew This Knife (2023), 20202021 Solo Piano (2024), Patreon songs (2019-present)

Genre: Rock

Style: Indie Rock, Art Rock, Post-Rock

While he has contributed to many bands, Spencer Krug has also created music by himself throughout the years. The earliest solo work he released was Sunset Rubdown, but the project later turned into a full band.[12] From 2010 to 1018, he released home-recorded instrumental and conceptual experimentations under the alias Moonface. After moving from Montreal to Helsinki, he recorded two albums with Finnish band Siinai, Heartbreaking Bravery and My Best Human Face.[44] But after releasing seven records as Moonface, Spencer Krug decided to release his solo work under his own name for a number of reasons, which can be summed up as that he felt the name created self-made misrepresentation.[45] Since 2019, he has released three solo albums as well as monthly new songs on his Patreon.[43] His solo work has mostly been played on the piano, keyboard, synthesizer, or electric guitar, and he also sometimes adds digital drums, strings, or other effects.[46]

Under the moniker Moonface and his own name, Spencer Krug feels more free to release works that wouldn’t fit the expectations people have for his other projects. He explained this in a San Francisco Examiner interview, “There are certain parameters that are expected out of certain bands. And it’s not just record labels or audiences or critics who place expectations. I’ve been guilty of playing to expectations. I don’t have to worry about that with Moonface.”[47] Even though he usually keeps his solo work more simple, this leads his releases to have much more variety in styles and sound. It also sometimes creates unexpected shifts between albums with, for example, Julia With Blue Jeans On being a solo piano and voice album, then with his next release, My Best Human Face, being an album recorded with another band (Siinai) and that has a more post-rock style, and then a more electronic and experimental album, This One's for the Dancer & This One's for the Dancer's Bouquet (which is actually a mix of two separate projects),[45] as the release after that. Another difference between his solo work and his other projects is that his solo songs usually have more literal and straight-forward lyrics, unlike projects like Sunset Rubdowns where songs are filled with figurative language.[27] On the other hand, his solo work is similar to Sunset Rubdown in the way that he has often reworked songs for both projects. He explained his reasoning behind reworking songs in a Beats per Minutes interview, “I think songs can change their impact, can change so much based on their instrumentation and the way they’re arranged for an instrument. And I find that really interesting. And then sometimes I find the two results will both be so strong that it’s worth sharing them both.”[33]

Conclusion

I hope this guide has been informative! Although I’d highly recommend listening to all of his projects, I hope this post will inspire you to listen to at least one of them. And if you’re already a fan of Spencer Krug, I hope you’ve learned a couple new things about his projects.

If this paper (especially the last two sections) looks rushed it's because I did the entire thing the last 3 days before it was due. Also if you spot any mistakes, please correct me.

Sources

1. “Artists - Pronounced Kroog.” Pronounced Kroog, 2024, pronouncedkroog.com/pages/artists.

2. “Spencer Krug Vinyl Records & Discography.” Vinyl Me, Please, www.vinylmeplease.com/blogs/artists/spencer-krug-vinyl.

3. Noel, Alyssa. “To the Moon and Beyond: Spencer Krug’s Giant Leap.” SPIN, 13 June 2012, www.spin.com/2012/06/moon-and-beyond-spencer-krugs-giant-leap/.

4. Wheeler, Brad. “Why Spencer Krug Went Slightly Mad Making His Latest Album.” The Globe and Mail, 15 Nov. 2013, www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/why-spencer-krug-went-slightly-mad-making-his-latest-album/article15464077/.

5. Petitti, Michael. “Sunset Rubdown Collate Again to Create Another Stunner.” Tucson Weekly, 11 Oct. 2007, www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/third-act/Content?oid=1089289.

6. “Two Tonne Bowlers | Discogs.” Discogs, www.discogs.com/artist/1396775-Two-Tonne-Bowlers.

7. “Two Tonne Bowlers - Penticton, BC Legion Hall - January 29 1994.” YouTube, uploaded by Belvedere Band, 21 May 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJeEn41lByY.

8. “Ska Revival.” AllMusic, www.allmusic.com/style/ska-revival-ma0000002403.

9. “Two Tonne Bowlers - Mantifiluss.” YouTube, uploaded by megathom, 22 Jan. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG5SbJ09fDE.

10. “Fifths of Seven | Discogs.” Discogs, discogs.com/artist/345265-Fifths-of-Seven.

11. “Spry From Bitter Anise Folds | Fifths of Seven.” Bandcamp, 13 Dec. 2017, fifthsofseven.bandcamp.com/album/spry-from-bitter-anise-folds.

12. “Spencer Krug on Working at a Bagel Shop, the Wolf Parade Hiatus, and His Incredible Career.” Last Donut of the Night, 27 July 2022, last-donut-of-the-night.ghost.io/spencer-krug-on-working-at-a-bagel-shop-the-wolf-parade-hiatus-and-his-incredible-career/.

13. “FIFTHS OF SEVEN (Canada).” Wayback Machine, web.archive.org/web/20071019192341/www.dsawave.com/wave/fiches/artistes/27.html.

14. “Fifths of Seven - Spry From Bitter Anise Folds.” Sputnik Music, 12 June 2009, www.sputnikmusic.com/review/30924/Fifths-of-Seven-Spry-From-Bitter-Anise-Folds/.

15. Murphy, Matthew. “Fifths of Seven: Spry From Bitter Anise Folds.” Pitchfork, 29 June 2005, pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/3341-spry-from-bitter-anise-folds/.

16. “Frog Eyes | Discogs.” Discogs, www.discogs.com/artist/831336-Frog-Eyes.

17. “FROG EYES.” SoftAbuse, web.archive.org/web/20071014044556/http://softabuse.com/artists/frog_eyes.html.

18. “Frog Eyes / Sunset Rubdown.” Pitchfork, 5 June 2006, pitchfork.com/features/article/6353-frog-eyes-sunset-rubdown/.

19. Wilson, Carl. “Frog Eyes: Tears of the Valedictorian.” Pitchfork, 3 May 2007, pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10167-tears-of-the-valedictorian/.

20. “Wolf Parade | Discogs.” Discogs, www.discogs.com/artist/366836-Wolf-Parade.

21. Coyne, Nicholas. “Dan Boeckner Tells the History of Wolf Parade, Album by Album.” TIDAL, 20 Oct. 2017, tidal.com/magazine/article/dan-boeckner-tells-the-history-of-wolf-parade-album-by-album/1-45076.

22. “Wolf Parade.” Sub Pop Records, 2005, web.archive.org/web/20060419225026/www.subpop.com/scripts/main/bands_page.php?id=438.

23. “Wolf Parade Members and Their Gear.” Equipboard, equipboard.com/band/wolf-parade.

24. O’Kane, Josh. “When Bands like Wolf Parade Break up, Why Do They Get Back Together?” The Globe and Mail, 22 July 2016, www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/when-bands-like-wolf-parade-break-up-why-do-they-get-back-together/article31082275/.

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26. Barclay, Michael. “Hungry Like the Wolf Parade.” Exclaim!, 30 Sept. 2005, exclaim.ca/music/article/hungry_like_wolf_parade.

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Apologies to the Queen Mary Wolf Parade 2005, Sub Pop

Apologies to the Queen Mary is on the short list of ‘00s indie records that I’d consider masterpieces. The funny thing is that my list, as someone who was there (or there-adjacent), is pretty well fixed in time, whereas the consensus among Zoomer critics continues to morph in ways I’d never have figured. (Or maybe it’s not funny, really—just always how time and memory work.) In 2008, I would’ve bet my left pinkie that TV on the Radio (and especially Return to Cookie Mountain) would be the defining band of the era. Meanwhile, in 2024 the Killers are still riding the same five songs to a second greatest hits record and fifty times TVotR’s monthly residuals; the National have tween fans; and I hold a mug weird. Time clowns us all and Wolf Parade are a dad band now, owners of a few anthems from the era before genuinely weird indie bands could near the summits of the pop chart, economically compelled to continue touring small theatres together despite both Boeckner and Krug having been more invested in other, even less profitable projects for some time now.

Wolf Parade is one of those bands with two lead singers who sound indistinguishable before you know the group well, and instantly identifiable thereafter (like John and Paul of the Beatles, or Felix and Will of Chapo Trap House). They’re both yowlers who let their voices crack pubescently as shorthand for the frayed emotional spectrum they traffic in, given to barking and hooting to help drive their bric-a-brac compositions forward. Boeckner is a lanky post-punk looking fuckboy in roughly the Richard Hell mould, given to posing sweatily in torn undershirts and starting projects with a succession of raven-haired keyboard players he’s also dating. He loves motorik dance rock and Wire, but also has a substantial helping of Bruce Springsteen in his songwriting. Krug is a stocky, normal-looking guy who doesn’t really meet your eyes and self-deprecatingly called his solo project Moonface. He writes lyrics that sound like philosophy and love letters translated from an alien language, and prefers his music to both thwack and quaver.

Their similarities give Wolf Parade coherence, but much of their dynamism comes from how the two singers pass the controls back and forth. Backed by electronics tinkerer Hadji Bakara and Arlen Thompson, a drummer (crucially) capable of serving as a rhythm section unto himself, Krug and Boeckner find the perfect balance between Krug’s experimental art collective predilections and Boeckner’s slyly sexual rock ‘n’ roll heart. Krug leads with the empty warehouse strut of “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son”; Boeckner parries with the hooky acoustic rocker “Modern World”; Krug closes with the brittle seven-minute dirge “Dinner Bells”; Boeckner responds with the pinkly-hued Suicide-Springsteen collab “This Heart’s on Fire.”

Both Boeckner and Krug have made wilder, stranger music elsewhere, and there are plenty of other brilliant Wolf Parade songs to be found across their subsequent records. But Apologies remains the greatest blend of their particular talents they ever managed, a perfect example of two guys pushing each other to do their best work. With luck, a future generation will reconsider Wolf Parade and its many, many satellites (Sunset Rubdown, Operators, Handsome Furs, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, Divine Fits…) as one of the most interesting micro-scenes the whole post-alternative rock era produced. And if not, I’ll still be here spinning the record a few times a year, believing in it all all over.