From Glastonbury To The Gulf Of Mexico

Wow. Time moves. I thought it had only been a week since the last What I've Been Listening To... but it's been twice that. Maybe ever other Friday would be a good cadence. 

For once, this really is going to be what I've been listening to since last time. I cleared all the deadwood. If it wasn't good enough to make the cut then, why would it be now, with fifty new tunes pushing for a place?

It's forty-eight actually and they break down broadly into five categories:

• New music by old faves
• Japanese video-game-inflected sugarpop
• Random names I liked who turned out to be good
• Mexican trap/reggaeton made by scary-looking people
  
• Everything else
  

If I was going to be literal about it, the music I've been listening to mostly, at least since last weekend, is Blondshell. I may be a little obsessesed with them. Her. Whatever.

Last weekend was the Glastonbury Festival. I don't like festivals and I particularly don't like Glastonbury but in recent years the BBC have turned it into one of the televisual highlights of the year. This time they had continual livestreams running all weekend for all five main stages. 

I was at work for most of it and many of the bands I would have liked to have watched had afternoon slots so I missed them. It is all still available for a month so I could go back and catch up but as I've said before, it's existentially different to see something as it happens than to watch a recording. Add that to my firm belief that few bands, at least the kind I like, show themselves to best advantage on a festival stage in broad daylight and there's not much incentive to revisit.

I did watch Fontaines DC's powerhouse headline performance on Saturday night. That's very well worth seeing in its entirety because of the sheer, murderous relentlessness of their attack. As I said to Mrs Bhagpuss the next morning, it's like Blur came on and did nothing but Song 2 for an hour. The BBC chose to release the two new songs to YouTube and those were among the least bludgeoning so it doesn't quite give the full impression but here's Favourite anyway. Such a good song.

I will catch up with The Last Dinner Party's and Yard Act's sets before they vanish from iPlayer but the only one I've made the effort to watch so far has been Blondshell. OMFG! They are good! They opened with Veronica Mars and somewhat threw it away, I thought, but the rest was just wonderful. On the back of that I've been re-watching all the old videos and I had Blondshell playlists running in the background while I've been writing posts this week.

I guess we'd better start there.

Docket - Blondshell

The thing I like best about Blondshell is everything. 

I love her voice so much. I love how I can just never tell if she's in tune or not. She slides all around the melody. It's gloriously disorienting. Like a drug.

I love her lyrics. They're like she's thinking aloud, They leave so much out. It's all subtext. So, so smart.

I love the dynamics. Every song just builds pressure and keeps on doing it til the end. It's claustrophobic and threatening and joyous all at once. 

I love the guitar. Those random squalls and screes. It sounds chaotic but its so controlled. 

They are just wonderful. I think I said that already. We should have another before we move on.

Sepsis - Blondshell

The lyrics for this one are in the YouTube description and they bear a lot of re-reading. My favorite quatrain:

He wears a front facing cap
The sex is almost always bad
I don’t care cuz I’m in love
I don’t know him well enough

I didn't know a front-facing cap was some kind of signifier. Now I do.

Y'know, I never liked grunge much the first time around but I would have if it had all been like this.

Punk - Girl Ultra & Little Jesus

This has to be about the least punk thing ever but maybe the title makes sense if you can understand the lyrics. Girl Ultra opened a gateway to another world for me. Not that she seems any part of it but it was tracking her through the recent past that made the YT algorithm think I wanted to hear more contemporary music from Mexico.

Turns out I did.

Morfina - Kiddie Gang

It's not that contemporary. Five years old. The first three Kiddie Gang tunes I heard were this one, Manson and Vampiro. That last is the newest. They also have songs called Adiccion, Mortal Kombat and Licor y Hielos. I think that gives you an idea of where they're coming from and quite possibly where they're going.

L.Q.E.P. - 666ATA

Rabbit hole goes deep. This was about the time when I started to be thankful I couldn't understand the lyrics. Or maybe that was here.

Kitty - Kenia OS, La Joaqui

There are a lot of songs about Hello Kitty. I have yet to hear a bad one. I have the strangest feeling they're name-checking Sanrio's superstar while really singing about something else, though...

Teen Titans - Puffy Ami Yumi

The magic of the YouTube recommends algorithm took me from there to here. Honestly, sometimes I'm absolutely certain it picks up on things like hairstyles and hats in the videos so this isn't even a stretch.

I thought we'd had this one here before but search says not. It's more than twenty years old now. Geez.

That got me listening to a whole slew of hyperactive Japanese gamepop. It's as addictive as sugar.

Young Girl A - Siinamota

There are a million versions of this one, including an English-language cover by Will Stetson that somehow has nearly 7m views. God knows why.

Catcher In The UI - Shigure Ui

I mean, come on. That title!

I think we'd better have some "music" now.

Perfect Cinema Weather - Lea's Apartment

Is it 1994 again? I'm not sure there's room for another Pulp. Not with the original still plowing the festival circuit.

Or that's what I thought when I saw this. Then I watched all of their others. They don't have many. None of them sound much like any of the others. Apparently they're a jazz group. Not that you'd know that either. 

They're good at titles but they outdid themselves with Television's like a Babycat with 10% Interest a Year and a Tendency to Fall. I mean, is it, though?

Fish Bird Baby Boy - Georgia Gets By

We've hit that moment in the set where the singer says "We're gonna slow it down now..." and everyone starts talking. Don't do that. Just sit back, watch the waves roll in and the wind blow her hair around and feel the stresses all just leave your tired, old body...

Just me? Okay then. Moving on...

wanna go to the gas station - Martha Sin Del

I lied. Not moving on at all!

Ever Seen - beabadoobee

OK, so I think I covered all the bases. Fudged it a bit on the random names/odds and ends but we're running long already so Aussie glam rock, French people being very French and Sparks being even weirder than usual are just going to have to wait for another day.

There's a new Lana del Rey song out (Official, that is.) so where this finishes is inevitable. Always close strong.

Tough - Quavo, Lana del Rey

Quavo's name first, I see. Then, it is from his YT channel. It's a real era mash-up, too. There's Lana from ten years ago in there and some Chemtrails/Norman Rockwell and a look-ahead to the upcoming country album. I wasn't a hundred per cent sold on first listen but it's a real grower.

Also, furry dice. That's a thing again?