Music Molly

music for two year blogiversaries (megamix 10)

I am terrible with anniversaries but I realized as of May 22nd, I have been blogging on I Enjoy Music Dot Net for two years! A year ago I did a blogiversary post. No big message this time other than I'm having lots of fun, and that connecting with music makers, music listeners and general music people gives my life profound meaning...no big deal. Friendly reminder: email me about music that you like, or music experiences that you have had, at ienjoymusicblog@gmail.com...

Oh what do we think of this feature image? I stole the vibe from the Video Archives Cinema Club's calendar design...

a house remix of one of the greatest songs of the 2010s, and possibly of all time

Kilby Block Party this year was so stacked that I barely had time to do side quests. But there was enough of a lull to make it to their legendary silent disco: a dark enclosed space where you put on headphones and get to choose between three channels of tunes, programmed by three different DJs spinning at the same time. Each DJ has a corresponding color, red blue or green, and you can see in real time what people are listening to based on their headphones' color. Fun musical experience, fun social experiment. One of the DJs, Spaz, played a Grizzly Bear remix that I unfortunately was able to identify as such by a single piano hit. Sue me, I went to liberal arts school. I levitated during this song, you could play this to lure me out and then drop a net over my head to trap me, no problem.

mentally I'm at the Johnny Rockets tabletop jukebox

A fun conversational strategy I've employed a lot lately is asking friends who I met long after adolescence about where they shopped for clothes in middle and high school. It's a fruitful topic, with relevant subtopics that include navigating social strata, financial anxiety and general aesthetic developments over time. Try it out sometime—you may like it.

One hallmark of my own youthful clothes shopping experience was taking an annual trip to Crossgates Mall, a 2ish hour drive to Albany NY. Crossgates had lots of stores that my hometown in Vermont did not, including Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M, and a Limited Too outpost that was shrouded in a glittery mist from all the body sprays being tested out (it also smelled strongly of 'grape'). I did not love the shopping—I still do not like shopping for clothes unless it's for stuff I can wear to the rave/club; my only directive for buying a wedding dress was 'whatever dress I liked most from a single afternoon of dress try-ons'—but I loved the break we took at Johnny Rockets. Johnny Rockets had delicious fried and grilled American food, but it also had jukeboxes on each table that took requests in exchange for a nickel, or maybe a dime. Do they still have these? I haven't been to a Johnny Rockets since I was a tween. The sense of comfort and control that this midcentury convenience gave me almost made up for the terror of trying to find light wash stretch flared jeans that wouldn't ruin my tenuous social standing.

new Casey Dienel music on the way? how did we get so lucky

Casey Dienel is a singer-songwriter-producer. They used to record as White Hinterland and then in 2017 they put out an album under their own name called Imitation of a Woman to Love. They produced it, engineered it, every sound on every song was their doing. And it's one of my favorite albums of the 2010s, really one of my favorites of all time. It's catchy and off-kilter and overwhelming and sophisticated and dark and sexy. It's truly Alt Pop, grabbing ur attention with both hands and taking your mind to weird places. If you like Caroline Polachek, or Mitski, or Fiona Apple, or Weyes Blood or Sky Ferreira or Faye Webster, you owe it to yourself to try out Imitation of a Woman to Love.

Through the twisting vortex of interconnected recommended Substacks, I saw that Dienel has a Substack, and they recently wrote about the process of preparing to release a new album (!) along with thoughts about gender and body image and the state of the music industry...oooo I'm stoked.

particle dogs...particle dogs

particle dogs by the Oklahoma City, OK-based particle dogs. 14 tracks. Mellow, funky instrumentals. Each a delightful micro-universe. A good album to have on "in the background" of doing something, but it does not fade into the background with shyness. It's got real shape and heft, like an ergonomic toy or a weighted blanket. I dig.

Pacing and Cheekface live, wowowow

They played The Regent last week and it was an amazing show. I interviewed Katie from Pacing two years ago when the blog was just getting started (she murdered me in digital chess) and she was talking about enjoying the music of Cheekface and also about booking her first live show ever. Extremely cool to see her playing for the Cheekfreaks with a cracking live band...she opened with the tortilla chip bag song...an elaborate game of rhythmic patty cake was organized for "Boyfriends"...I bought a shirt...big things popping for Pacing. And Cheekface played "Featured Singer," my favorite song of theirs. Bonus points, we went next door to The Love Song Bar after the show and a cover band with an aggressively roaming lead singer (he kept going outside to serenade the smokers) played a country-and-western rendition of "Santa Monica" by Everclear. Pedal steel and everything!

you are always assured of the freshest chips available

nepoptimism

You do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to" anyone but in the case of Romy Mars and her song "A-Lister"? I just might gotta. This young woman is the daughter of Sofia Coppola (director of films) and Thomas Mars (frontman of the band Phoenix). She is well-connected, gorgeous, rich, and eighteen years old—a Jane Austen field day. People first got to know Romy Mars because she made a TikTok about getting grounded for trying to charter a helicopter to hang out with her camp friend; "A-Lister" takes that particular wry and blasé approach to having untold privilege and makes it earwormingly delish. The vibe is Less Than Zero before things get really gross, or The Bling Ring but no one needs to do any stealing because they already have all the nice things. The song was produced by Claud, who is on Phoebe Bridgers's label Saddest Factory, interesante. I am addicted to the Heartless, tasteless, nameless, famous part of the chorus.

email me music stuff of any sort, ienjoymusicblog@gmail.com

from Leo: "Early 90’s indie pop from Nebraska"

"Late one Sunday night I was listening to Sirius XM’s First Wave and they played a song called Over Nepal by For Against. I immediately fell in love with the track. The song is the perfect meld of shoegaze and dream pop," wrote Leo. I really like this, it's so perfectly hazy with that perfect 'swirly' guitar tone. I have never had consistent access to Sirius XM but it feels like somewhat of a throwback to the more discovery-based / human-curated radio experience of pre-Telecommunications Act times. There's a show on First Wave called "DJ Bueller's Breakfast Beatmix," which sounds good to me too.

from Parker: "Searching for the sound of the summer. Guys in flannels making rock music? Maybe"

Got a rec in the mailbag from Parker for "Bless My Bones" by Me Like Bees. Interesting cognitive dissonance on this for me, as the music is power-poppy, but the lyrics almost sound like they could be from a metal song ("See now the omen, the harbinger's totem / It's carved with dolorem and gloria dei"). Also there's a hella clean breakdown near the end, gleaming really, as if scrubbed with a Scrub Daddy...

I listened to music because I saw people saying it was good

More I Enjoy Music: Eavesdropping for u.

I listened to "Amiss" by alt pop artist waterbaby because Devon Chodzin posted "in my world, waterbaby is a main pop girl." I listened to a bunch of Scottish bands with music on Bandcamp because Bluesky mutual Johnny McBob put them in a big thread along with I Enjoy Music favorite Frog; specifically, Youth Of America, Big Lanes, and The Chunks. I listened to the song "Margery, My First Car" by Vulfpeck because commenter Andre T revealed the relevance of its existence on my Hey Rel blog post, and I wanted an excuse to test out some Vulfpeck in the ears. I listened to @vegastripreport's list of top R.E.M. songs because you can't spell SUMMER without R.E.M. I listened to John Gorbus because Jordan Michael Iannucci said "it's normally not my thing but I like it a lot"—specifically I listened to the live album from January, man I love live albums...

And how bout some new music from I Enjoy Music associates??

The Answers In Between, last seen shouting out Our Wicked Lady's staircase for Three Music Thingz, has a new single out – "Dry Chicken"/"Board Up The Flood":

95 Bulls, pound for pound my favorite NYC band????? last seen in the IEJ-iverse guesting on the And Introducing podcast, put out hot new music..."Gin Shot"!

2:00AM Wake Up Call, last seen detailing her album rollout for the epic double LP Mall Fantasy, has a new album called Dead City out on June 10th, and released a single for it called "CD Age":

And do you know Wasp Factory? I interviewed them for The Alternative a few years ago, and Rippy from the band put out some new tunes w/ the band Rippy and the Hippies: