ON REPEAT: MGMT, A Giant Dog, Real Estate, Bjork & Rosalia, Doja Cat, Missy Elliott
THE TRUTH
It’s the end of the year and all the lists are coming out. Some people balk at the lists but I strongly disagree. I don’t get mad at where albums land or artists that are ignored—it’s subjective. I just love overdosing on music that I missed throughout the year. So far, this Loud and Quiet list is up my alley.
I also got my Spofify wrapped, which is always a double-edged sword.
Spotify is a shit company that doesn’t pay artists enough, except for Joe Rogan who gets paid far too much.
Very nice graphic design on these guys, fun conversation starter!
I’m still a last.fm guy (!) so none of this is a huge surprise, but here’s my thing:
Pretty colors! And it says the stuff I like!
Speaking, of here’s a Spotify playlist with all my picks.
Bjork & Rosalia “Oral”
I was like “yes, Bjork is making songs that sound like this again” and then my friend said, “nah it’s old” but it’s still nice.
One time I was doing a show at the original, tiny Old Man Hustle in the Lower East Side and Bjork walked by, and someone said, “Bjork!” and the audience all walked outside to look at Bjork. Including myself! She went into a dollar store to buy pinatas or ribbons or something.
Real Estate “Water Underground”
Edmond Hawkins, former director of The Special and now-director of SNL, and a million other great things, directed this video for Real Estate, the pride of Ridgewood, New Jersey. They recruited the pride of Wellsville, Pete & Pete (aka Danny Tamberelli and Mike Maronna) for this video. They manage to capture the warm vibes of that show both visually and with the warm sounds that Real Estate is known for. It’s just a video made by a bunch of great Jersey dudes of different stripes.
MGMT “Bubblegum Dog”
Speaking of great music videos by funny friends, Tom Scharpling & Julia Vickerman made this incredible video for the Wesleyan Two, inspired by the visuals of mid-90’s MTV: Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Red Hot Chili Peppers, et al. Warped visuals, clouds, swimming in front of a power plant—there’s even a crazy old man laughing. They did an incredible job.
I am also in the video! I got covered in cold pink slime that got embedded into my chest hair. But they took it right in the mouth which is disgusting. It was also fun to see how much thought was put into candle placement for the Alice in Chains Unplugged homage. The lava lamp!!
MGMT have come a long way from their mid-aughts debut. I remember seeing them live at a McCarren Pool Party and it was a scene: Kirsten Dunst was swaying on the side of the stage, John Norris was next to me, people were blasting down the slip n’ slide. There’s a mention of it in this oral history of the pool parties:
Hooper: We booked MGMT before they blew up. That show was absolute lunacy. Actual capacity was 5,500, we might’ve had 10,000. By 9 a.m., seven hours before the show, there was a line. "Time to Pretend" had been released that spring and the girls were going insane, scaling the fences, jumping onto Port-a-Potties and down into the pool, crying at every entrance because it was at capacity.
Goldstein: It looked like busloads of Connecticut teenagers had rolled in and they’d all already taken all their drugs.
They kept at it, ditched the headbands and casual facepaint and changed up their sound in a lot of interesting ways. I especially love this song, “She Works Out Too Much,” which is on Little Dark Age.
A Giant Dog “I Believe”
Speaking of Tom, The Best Show continues a hot streak of musical guests this week with A Giant Dog. (I can say this even though I book most of them—but Wes Knapp always delivers on visuals, and Andrew Gleason sometimes does a better mix than an artist’s album itself!)
Doja Cat “Paint The Town Red”
I went to AEW two weeks ago and they played the on the big screen (the Khan-Tron?) and if wrestling did this sort of thing more instead of giving Downstait or whoever-the-fuck more money for anthemic butt rock, wrestling would be less embarrassing to like.
Also, Toni Storm is doing some great character stuff as a Norma Desmond type.
THE GOLD STANDARD
Missy Elliott & Ciara “Lose Control”
Somehow this made my top five songs of the year, which is surprising to me. Then again, it could be in my top five every year—it’s the best.