ON REPEAT: Mandy Indiana, Upchuck, M.A.Z.E., Jackie Mendoza, Synthia, Reiss Glaze, An Luu

“Pourquoi tu me fous plus des coups?”

Some more new loves and old picks! Here are all of them in one Spotify playlist.

Jackie Mendoza “Mucho Mas”

I have liked Jackie’s music for a long time now, going back to her days as the lead singer of Gingerlys (who played The Special), and that band’s spin-off Lunarette. But her solo stuff is what I love. I’m not smart enough to know what to even call it. There is a distorted ukulele and dream pop that bleeds into reggaeton, and it sounds like nothing that’s come before it. It was produced by Rusty Santos, best known for work with Animal Collective.

She just played on The Best Show and kicked the set off with one of my favorites, “Mucho Mas.”

“The lyrics came from a poem I wrote on a day where I felt too anxious to leave my apartment. When I was in the studio with Rusty, we were trying new ukulele sounds and I loved the way it sounded pitched down to the point where it rumbled like a bass. When it came to recording vocals I went back to the poem, and because I was in such a comfortable place in the studio, I felt like I was on the other side of my anxious tendencies.”

I picked that one but there’s a whole great new album full of new sounds and I cannot recommend it enough.

Mandy Indiana “Pinking Shears”

This is another band that gets me excited about the future of indie music, whatever that is. Like a Water From Your Eyes or a Nourished By Time or a Jackie Mendoza. It just sounds NEW in a way music hasn’t sounded to my jaded millennial ears. This is one of those songs I heard five seconds of and was immediately like, “Well, I love this.” Expect to see more of them here.

“We wanted to alter textures, create clashes, and craft those moments when what you’re expecting to happen never comes.”

M.A.Z.E. “Spread the Germicide”

Sometimes things that are perfect for you just take a second to get to you. Somehow, I am just learning about M.A.Z.E., a punk/new wave band from Japan.

Their record, II, was produced by Ian Teeple, who I featured TWICE in the last On Repeat, for his work with Warm Bodies and his solo venture, Silicone Prairie. He’s also a member of Sn​õ​õ​per, who are also SIMPLY the cat’s meow.

I know they’ve been on my radar but I must have not given it a proper listen because it feels like something I “Weird Science-d” out of a magical 80’s computer to be my ideal band to listen to.

Upchuck “In Your Mind”

This is a song from 2021 but I didn’t have this in 2021 and I’ve been revisiting it. Upchuck are group from Atlanta with roots in “skateboarding, construction, and teenage delinquency.” And the band members have names like Spuzz Dangus and Hoffdog.

If you don’t know me personally you might not know there was a very good chunk of time where I listened exclusively to music like this and that side of me does not get enough representation on this thing.

Synthia “So Low (feat. Claire Cotrill)”

When a song nails it, like really NAILS IT—I seldom want to hear a cover of it. How do you top perfection? I love “So Low,” the 1981 minimal wave single by the mysterious Carol. It’s just a hunch but I feel like it’s one of those songs that feel like a little secret, but it’s on a zillion spotify “vibe” playlists or something.

This new version by Synthia features Claire Cotrill (better known as Clairo) on vocals. “Clairo/Carol” is the new “Uma/Oprah.”

I was suspicious when I hit play on this, but somehow it adds something new and cool without losing what I like about the original. It also adds a skronk sax solo from producer Leon Michels (of El Michels Affair fame) at the end. Good job to everyone involved.

Reiss Glaze “Paradise of Your Temptations”

I cannot find a thing about this song online, I have no idea what this is.

THE GOLD STANDARD

An Luu “Pourquoi tu me fous plus des coups?”

This is another example of one of those songs I think is my special little discovery, only to hear it blast from the speakers of The Turk’s Inn and then see it has 50k plays on YouTube and it’s maybe not my special little discovery after all. In fact, NPR used this song as a perfect distillation of Spotify taking the “orphaned media” of obscure acts like this in a much better way than I just demonstrated:

Relevance, as logic requires, is finite. If it weren't, then everything would be relevant, and there would be no use for the concept. What really takes us by surprise is when we hear music that has perhaps never been important to our way of thinking but is somehow smuggled into our presence. We experience a feeling of temporary disbelief, or of being privy to an alternate reality. It's lucky to get our attention.

But it is special! Though the lyrics are slightly horrifying when you translate them given how bubbly the song is. It’s from the warped perspective of someone stuck in an abusive relationship, with the singer asking, “Why don't you beat me up anymore?”

I guess the lesson of the story is don’t Google songs.