the funny thing is (as far as i know) yves has never publicly expressed preferred pronouns, it's always a writer attributing that to them (via PR or something i'm sure), which i think is kind of the point. lol.
fun fact: curls actually came before girls, although not the iteration that put out the EP a few years back. to my knowledge, curls was christopher's first band with liza thorn (who "vomit" was written about) when he first moved to SF. they broke up and then chris formed girls with JR.
not to burst your bubble or anything, but ida no has a personal instagram on which she's recently posted a demo and seems to hint at releasing her own music at some point, so i don't think glass candy are still together.
mike simonetti's tweet:
"I have been receiving emails all morning from media people asking for a statement about Chromatics breaking up. All I have to say is, I’ve known about this for months, and im genuinely happy that they are out of there."
folks on r/indieheads have mentioned this as well—it seems jj quietly replaced the original with new mixes at some point. i hadn't noticed except for the title track which had been changed as of a couple years ago.
thanks for that addendum!
forgot to mention, i still think "closer to grey" is a fascinating and worthwhile album. it's not "dear tommy" and it's not "kill for love," but there's something to it. it's like one of those movies where a character is being haunted only to gradually realize that they are a ghost. idk. will be interesting and no doubt wistful to listen to that now as their final LP and think of all that could have been. RIP.
the writing's been on the wall, it seems. johnny jewel was holding their music hostage and in turn, i imagine, the other band members' livelihoods. i have no idea what the three of them do beyond chromatics, but given that johnny is in effect IDIB and holds the publishing rights, etc. that certainly would be a shitty situation. meanwhile, he's running a label in which he manages to snag writing and production credits for pretty much every other act he's signed. it's like a fucking pyramid scheme. join the cult of johnny jewel and you'll reap the benefits of money and fame, if your record ever gets released. it seems like in what was ostensibly an effort to own the music and retain creative control, johnny created a label that is not run well and seems to be somewhat tyrannical, not to mention that megan is his wife and also the label president/manager/a&r/publicist.
in addition to radio silence from chromatics since the onset of the pandemic, i also find it strange that for a label that is actively releasing albums they seem to do such little promotion. i understand that it's an operation run by a handful of people—but they've put out at least two full-lengths this summer and hadn't posted on instagram in weeks, as of yesterday. i feel like in an effort to be self-sustaining johnny created a culture that's so insular that it ultimately hurts his acts when he's free to chase every whim down the rabbit hole. he's truly the wizard of oz.
i hope these three will go on to make music together. i maintain there's a reason why for every act johnny has produced on the label, chromatics will always be far and away the most iconic and simply one of the best bands of the last 15 years. glass candy were a close second and i really hope we'll hear more from ida no someday.
i kind of thought that too at first, but they're really all growers. i think at this point it's safe to assume the understated nature of these tracks is the aesthetic—there's no "bad guy" coming and that's okay.
the production is immaculate on all five singles and if you listen to them back to back, i think they make a lot of sense (and the transition from "nda" to "therefore i am" is pretty cool). the maturation from WWAFAWDWG is there! not necessarily reinventing the billie/finneas wheel but refining it quite a bit, which is huge considering this album is dropping just two years later.
"nda" is probably the most exciting as a single, but "my future" just gets better and better with each listen. idk, i'm excited.
maybe sounds like a lost, more cutting peter gabriel hit gone twee but certainly doesn't resemble "dreams."
it's nice enough but nothing i would ever think to revisit, tbh.
they have their moments! it's just that when someone immediately references the bee gees as indicative the entire genre it's clear how little they actually know about it.
the instrumental is so good! really making good on those luther vandross vibes and dev coming through as always with that beautifully melancholic hook.
i really love mykki but am i wrong for thinking their bars left a little to be desired? anyways, very stoked for the album.
the hilarious part about all of this is that to most listeners, you won't be able to pick up on the "re-recorded" aspects of the songs, if they ever come out. given the way that chromatics' music is constructed, the multiple versions and takes of every single song they put out, etc. i highly doubt that the album was scrapped and redone in any traditional sense. i'm guessing every song they put out has hundreds of different tracks and takes to pick and choose from, so yeah, maybe JJ got new vocal takes or guitars or drum tracks here and there, but i'm guessing the album was more reconstructed than re-recorded. at least preliminarily when JJ began touting all of this, as the latest "dear tommy" tracklist they released a year ago was fairly different than any of the previous iterations.
clearly he's worried that the masterpiece he's been mythologizing for almost 7 years now isn't in the bag, or he wouldn't have released half the songs years ago only to shelve them, and then release what were obviously cuts slated for the original record as part of "closer to grey."
i actually think "closer to grey" is on par with "night drive"—it's a leaner and meaner record and will always live in the shadow of "dear tommy" without being able to measure up to the noir-sprawl of "kill for love." but i'll take "closer to grey" over the reworked versions of their other albums that he seems to be content on releasing into oblivion.
i'm a huge chromatics fan, but honestly this has all soured me on them a bit and IDIB as a whole as they operate in a manner that is incredibly frustrating, not only for fans but likely for the other artists on the roster. i don't get how or why the stans on r/chromatics just keep buying up the different colored vinyl releases they drop ever month or so—i own vinyl but i don't fucking need the "kill for love" sister LP on 10 different colors of wax. it just seems like they've engendered this cult of personality that is kinda disappointing when the curtain gets pulled back.
anyways, "teacher" was good.
why are dudes who by their own admission are "never going to like" a LDR album always lowkey obsessed with commenting on said LDR albums and whether or not other people's subjective opinions about her music and artistry are valid?
like, we get it, you prefer men with guitars. do you, bro.
"harness your hopes" is for sure weird, but, idk "strange" is pretty iconic in terms of galaxie 500, in that i always think of the song when i think about the band. weird algorithmic shit aside i do think it's one of their most recognizable songs.
this is good but i wish jack wouldn't sing like that lmao. like lil peep doing a springsteen impression? idk.
but bruce sounds so fucking good! daddy son vibes ngl ;_;
lol @ the idea that people tune into SNL to watch the musical guests when the show has built-in legacy viewership. not to mention if you're only interested in the performances you can just watch those on youtube after the fact. i've watched the show with people generally less interested in music than me (i.e. they don't comment on stereogum) and most often they fast forward through the musical guest, no matter who it is.
colbert, fallon, kimmel, et al book "obscure indie" artists, like, every week and i would posit those late night shows have less of a stable viewership than SNL does. not to mention, i often only tune into those late night shows when i'm interested in the musical guest, and i'm sure there are other people out there who do the same.
lastly, i'm not talking about jack white, which was a special circumstance, and he's a showstopper. the strokes put out a new album this year. i'm referring to, again, justin bieber being booked twice in 6 months and the foo fighters, who are not promoting a new album, for the tenth time over countless other artists who've released music this year. those are just two examples, and there are countless more.
lmao who is SNL's music director? ignoring all the artists who've put out great records this year to book justin bieber twice and...the foo fighters? it's fucking embarrassing.
the lyric in "tair" seems to match up with what the band said it is, but jack definitely says the n-word in "trapdoor," right?
near the beginning of the third verse: "i'm a city n**** / i was born in the streets."
i love adrianne's songwriting (once in a generation talent for sure) and adore big thief. but i just can't get into her solo stuff as much as i want to. i like the acoustic moments on big thief's records, but enjoy them most when tempered with the band's knottier, jagged performances. it's the give and take for me. but man what a prolific artist.
the sequencing is revelatory. i mean, "leave" into "on the floor"—fuck—listening on headphones at night, i felt like i lost control of my body and just had to dance.
i actually think while containing perhaps mike's most unabashed pop moments, this record is also maybe his most challenging, in a discography that has always rewarded patient and repeated listening.
it's like he took the pop moments of "no shape" and made them even more immediate, while bending and warping the meditative, atmospheric ballads into something even more askew. it feels like the musical language that mike has been developing over his past releases has fully materialized and taken shape, and the songs take their form from within that space.
it's interesting how even though "no shape" took plenty of turns into darkness, it always feels like you've made it out the other side by the time the album ends. "set my heart on fire immediately" feels more confusing, ambivalent, and challenging because there is no such resolve. i'm betting that it will end up being my favorite record of mike's after some time. it's definitely its own sonic universe that demands you give into it in order to fully experience it.
"...every pregnant pause and operatic flourish does something or says something, even if it’s hard to pin down its exact function."
low-key this sentence sounds like part of the google doc that's flagged for needing a final edit.
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