ON REPEAT: JD Cliffe, Kassie Krut, ketamine_shoppe, Tierra Whack, Special Interest, Sam Wilkes, FearDorian, Confidence Man, Tyler The Creator, Magdalena Bay, Mary Jane Dunphe, Jamie xx, Fontaines DC
I air this bitch out like a queef
A super-sized edition of great songs, a lot from people I’ve talked about or that are so well known that I don’t have essays to write about! Check the songs out here in playlist form.
JD Cliffe “BUSS YOUR HEAD”
We’re seeing the generation that grew up on early grime and Bloc Party emerge and it results in this, and as someone whose favorite records in high school included Silent Alarm and Run The Road Vol. 1 & 2, I love to see it. JD Cliffe is from London he’s invited much of London along with him to perform this sibg in what looks like a public toilet. It’s so fucking infectious, I love it. It’s a hit on TikTok too and I just keep thinking that this was probably a little embarrassing to shoot:
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Kassie Krut “Reckless”
A fun jam from former members of Philly’s Palm, which serves as an introduction—a genre of song I always like. I’ve seen comparisons to Water From Your Eyes and a cross between Liars and Sleigh Bells.
“If you ask me who I wanna be/Im’a spell it out so it’s plain to see/K-A-S-S-I-E K-R-U-T-T-T-T.”
Special Interest “Nothing Grows Here”
I know this isn’t Scooter but every time this song starts I want to go, “CRAAAAANK IIIIIIT AHHHHHP!” Alli from the band said the song is about “The moment you decided to confront your complacency,” and given the band’s tendency to make allusions to building an army, it’s a welcome tone that I hope continues and spreads over the next few years of daily madness this regime of far-right lunatics and television grifters will bring.
Fontaines D.C. “Starburster”
This band. I kinda wrote them off as, like, “NME music” but you know what, I like a lot of NME music! I just said my favorite records high school were BLOC PARTY and a GRIME COMPLIATION PUT OUT BY VICE, I mean come on. And in listening to “best of 2024” stuff, I got over my weird aversion to this band that is kinda the exact same thing and now I like this song but I’m still a bit reticent to say I completely “fuck with” them.
Confidence Man “Who Knows What You’ll Find”
Similarly, I have a slight aversion to bubblegum pop, and I checked out Confidence Man’s stuff before and kinda dismissed it. But then it’s been popping up in best-of-the-year lists and I asked myself what I’d think of this song if it came out in 1997, and I would have loved it.
Confidence Man is from Brisbane and they have been doing it since 2016, and I guess it’s just out of my spectrum enough for me to have missed their stuff.
Magdalena Bay “Image”
Another jam from one of my favorite records of the year.
Kendrick Lamar “tv off (feat. Lefty Gunplay)
See above.
Tyler, The Creator “Balloon (feat. Doechii)”
I’ve talked a lot about Doechii lately (who is great on this) but I haven’t really dived into the new Tyler, The Creator record but it’s got a lot of really interesting stuff on it as usual and some real dumbass lyrics all over this one.
I air this bitch out like a queef
That’s the quote I’ll use for the subtitle.
Tierra Whack “SHOWER SONG”
Somehow this year I missed this fun one from Tierra Whack, which would have sounded right in place on Whack World, one of my favorite musical projects ever.
FearDorian “What Happened”
Someone rapping over a bar italia loop idk
Jamie xx “Dafodil (feat. Kelsey Lu, John Glacier & Panda Bear)”
I really loved the last Jamie xx record which was like almost a decade ago somehow. All the stuff I’ve heard from his latest is so good and look at this murderers’ row of the chillest talent assembled on this one. Though all of these trippy visuals are a bit much right? I play music off my bedroom TV mostly and it always hurts my eyes looking up at it. (It’s not as dark as it looks in here.)
ketamine_shoppe “case file”
Speaking of, I had been listening to this cool track all month thinking it was some anonymous musician that had made its way into my “on review” playlist…
…until I actually looked at the tiny album art in the corner and realized I had missed a new release from my good friend John Vanderslice! I’ve even sat on that couch!
Check out the guest list the Vanderslice family did a few months ago!
Sam Wilkes “I Wanna Be Loved”
Again, like the last one, sometimes you just want something to zone out completely to and this does the trick. My latest “first song of the morning” pick along with the previous one.
Mary Jane Dunphe “Fix Me”
A highlight from the Sub Pop singles from Mary Jane who had one of my favorite records last year.