ON REPEAT: Peace De Résistance, babybaby_explores, Saya Grey, Yaeji, Janet Jackson, Daga Voladora, Tems, Parasites of the Western World, AJ & Big Justice

Double CHUNK chocolate cookies

This one’s a weird collection of songs! Some odds and ends from my summer listening and I don’t have much to say about most of them except for the one that has the least artistic value!

Saya Grey “IF THERE’S NO SEAT IN THE SKY (WILL YOU FORGIVE ME???)”

Some nice Dean Blunt-y acoustic lo-fi folk hip-hop R&B rock (if that makes sense) stuff from Saya Grey from Toronto.

Peace De Résistance “I Am”

Heard this on Darren’s triumphant return to WFMU this weekend. This is Moses Brown from Institute’s new Bowie-esque project. RCIYL Station to Station or the Berlin Trilogy or the Lou Reed stuff.

Parasites of the Western World “Politico”

Another gem from that show is from this lesser-known band from late 70’s Portland, who sound like a mix of Gary Numan, Sparks and CAN depending on the track.

Tems “Burning”

You want to hear a newer song that sounds like an earworm you heard on the radio from 20 years ago? The Nigerian-born Tems has got you.

Yaeji “booboo”

I’m always rooting for Yaeji. She feels like a hometown hero (the hometown being Bushwick) and I’m friends with people dancing alongside during her Boiler Room set (hi Chandler). But also not a ton of people are doing dance music like her, often meta and self-reflective. Love the 2nd half of the song where she incorporates a “Raingurl” sample while talking about how she wasn’t ready for the song to be such a hit back then.

Also, I went to a rave this weekend with my friend Kate but thankfully it was not filmed for YouTube.

Fleeky Bang “My Ninjas”

I don’t even know if I like this. I moved closer to Koreatown and in addiiton to the rave, I went to a restaurant called Ddong Go this weekend. The place was entirely filled with hot 22-year-old Korean kids. I was the ugliest person there by far until a white guy carrying an acoustic guitar showed up. They paused the “new hiphop 2024” YouTube comp they were playing to play this and it set a tone in the room that I choose to carry on in my studio apartment. I think I just like that his name is Fleeky Bang and the song is called “My Ninjas” and it looks like it was filmed in a dorm.

Daga Voladora “Ceniza plateada”

Cristina Plaza, aka Daga Voladora and fka Big Eternal, obviously loves Stereolab and Broadcast and it shows and I’ll always have room for that in my musical diet.

AJ & Big Justice “We Bring The BOOM”

So the Costco guys were at an AEW event and like Jellyroll before, certain things in the zeitgeist that I’d rather not get in my brain are unavoidable thanks to my regrettable obsession with professional wrestling.

The song itself sounds like the Fat Boys, who weirdly somehow didn’t perform at any WrestleManias. It’s a strangely slick production, and the singing while flexing and stepping creates this beautiful cognitive dissonance only enhanced by the weird backstory and that they’re still singing about Costco, “double-CHUNK chocolate cookies” after all this. I can’t tell if they can tell how weird this is. Don’t get me started on the rizzler.

There’s about 20 identical videos to these with some variations of additional cousins. They’re all weirdly patriotic. “We bring the happiness and laughter when we enter the room” is a line that makes me laugh every time.

If you’re unfamiliar, AJ & Big Justice are a father and son who made stilted, dead-eyed videos YELLING about how much they love Costco. It’s dumb as hell. I’m sure some found it cringe, others found it (at best) weirdly charming. Most moved on, but the considerable amount of people who followed them were treated to this rapid “quadruple-downing” by the father, and now they have a podcast and appear on Barstool Sports shows and it’s a whole thing.

You see AJ, (the guy who looks like he should be named “Big Justice” of the group with the Perc Angle smile) used to be a weekend warrior wrestler before he made TikToks in Costco with Big Justice (the kid who looks like his name should be AJ). Weirdly, this path brought him to a big wrestling show after all. Also, hey Colt Cabana!

This is my favorite part of the extended viral fame cycle—somehow these people get an audience from a profoundly dumb thing and wind up somewhere else: Hawk Tuah heads to the big chairs of Club Random, William Hung puts out a Christmas record, Tay Zonday pops up in Dr. Pepper commercials. If you missed the week they were relevant, the very end of their fifteen minutes is completely disorienting.

babybaby_explores “Leafbag”

More fun stuff from the weirds.

THE GOLD STANDARD

Janet Jackson “Doesn’t Really Matter”

The music video in which Janet Jackson successfully predicted what life would be like almost 25 years later: waking up from your night nap and watching The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps with your robot dog, before hopping in your Acura to party on the raised platforms of Tokyo with your hula hooping friends.