Music Molly

music for local freaks (megamix 18)

Welcome back to the I Enjoy Music newsletter. Happy to have you here.

First a reminder that I Enjoy Music Videos is live, and you can always visit ienjoymusicvideos.net for a selection of music videos from indie artists...the website is there for your enjoyment. Ok onward...

burning virtual CDs for your loved ones??

Nicole from Nicstalgia pointed out this fascinating project from JY aka @jeongyoon.design, who shared a tutorial for making a digital facsimile of a burned CD, complete with old-school desktop computer UX and all.

In honor of my fiendish tendency in high school to make mix CDs for anyone for any reason at all, I recreated a mix CD my sister recently found in her room that is called "B-E-A-Utiful Love Songs!" which is very representative of my 2005ish mindset, even though there are a couple songs in there that feel a little off-kilter. Is "Take Me To The Backseat" by The Donnas a beautiful love song? For certain dirtbags, sure. And I guess I was hearing some yearning and romance in Joey Ramone singing "Eating chicken vindaloo / I just want to be with you," okay, why not.

teeny weeny Coachella recap sorry...plus ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U chaos set

Another year another Chella. I was not pregnant this time so I felt a little more bodily autonomous. Got to get in the pits for Geese and Die Spitz, got briefly possessed by Slayyyter during "YES GODDD," stood at the back of the field for The Strokes on mainstage and twirled like a Grateful Dead follower.

For some reason this year the audience seemed much more locked in, willing to put phones down and dance. Why now? Last year was full of zombies. Maybe the strong pull toward Justin Bieber weeded out those folks from other performances. Maybe it was self-selecting for Old Head sets? I commend everyone for throwing down. I also sometimes got closer to the front than ever before, not my usual —for the Negroni aficionados Mind Enterprises, I could nearly tap the stage.

SHOUT OUT TO THE LOOP EARPLUGS STAND, IT COST SOME DOUGH BUT I GOT A COOL EARPLUG NECKLACE THING THAT STAYS ON VIA MAGNETS

not #spon just really enthusiastic about hearing protection and ear health...

(Wrote about JB's Weekend 1 performance for GQ by the way, got to pull in a lot of old Belieber energy—one of the first pieces of music writing I ever had published on the web was about his documentary Never Say Never...that's some archival music enjoyment for ya)

We caught some weekend 1 sets on the stream, stuff that we knew we wouldn't have time to see. ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U's Sahara set...we switched to his channel and I thought there was an error because he was playing the studio version of Taylor Swift's "You Need To Calm Down" but acting like he was slamming some hard techno. It was a chaotic set, and I was struck by his frequent use of studio songs, rather than remixes or flips, as well as his tendency to often play the full length of a song. Here is his weekend 2 setlist:

Closing with not one but two Bruce Springsteen songs, after playing Skrillex and ISOxo...it almost feels like a troll but something about Yousuke Yakimatsu's written description of the set ("As for my set, I made a few mistakes this time...the fatigue might have caught up with me. But that has nothing to do with the people who came to listen, and making excuses like that isn’t professional") feels like there's sincerity in his craft. Fascinated by this guy, if he comes back in town I'd like to see him. Also "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi is a perfect song—it almost sounds like a song that a Kpop boy band could record now—and I'm glad someone else sees the vision.

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

Let us Eavesdrop.

I listened to Avalon Emerson & the Charm's Written Into Changes on Kabir Kumar's recommendation, "How Dare This Beer" really captures a certain feeling about pleasure and indulgence. I watched the underscores DJ set in a U-Haul truck on the rec of Photo Club participant Alex, few are doing it like underscores. I listened to "We Belong Together (Mimi's Late Night Valentine's Mix) (Extended)" because Dan Allegretto talked about it in Yasi Salek's newsletter ("It’s almost eight minutes long and she goes completely ballistic").. the album art being a lipstick-smudged cognac glass with a sparkling butterfly inside it, accompanied by a microphone and piano...she gets it.

I listened to MJ Cole's BBC Essential mix because an r/indieheads commenter thought Fcukers' album was mid in comparison to actual UK garage...fair enough but "if you wanna party, come over to my house" is undeniable. I listened to "Tell Him" by Hello because John Leavitt was promoting "70s butt glam" and I support and uplift that. I listened to Appleby's song "without you" because he said it was blowing up in China and that's neat (I interviewed him years ago for The Alternative)...tis a bop, tis a hit, put it on the radio. I listened to Wilco's "Impossible Germany" for the first time in a while because Steve Holmes from American Football said he liked the guitar solo in his AMA. I listened to the Ethel Cain Like A Version video for "Thoroughfare" because Ben Firke posted it on IG, and then I remembered kind of emotionally blacking out at this song at her show at the Greek...which reminded me I saw this moment live, what a champ:

Oh I listened to a handful of stuff I found on Freakscene, a digital forum for music with a specific focus on local scenes. I am a "Los Angeles" freak there so I listened to some exciting stuff, including Double Disco by less than zero (harsh but catchy no wave out of Long Beach), Sailor Set Sail's self-titled EP (scrappy screamo from San Gregorio) and premonitions by corpus (sparkling ambient music from L.A.). All very good finds, I need to browse Freakscene more...

And how about some new music from past I Enjoy Music featurees?

Hey remember Countach from his Behind The Album Art? Acid techno, hella '90s electronic stylings? He's got a new EP called Power and it baaaaaaangs: