WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’VE NEVER SEEN BLADE RUNNER?
Issue - 012
Personally, I thought Blade Runner: 2020 was a little overrated. Maybe it’s different when you’re living through it. The villain was totally unbelievable—like who word vomits that much? Could have used more Gosling.
R.E.M. - Drive
Hot Mulligan - OG Bule Sky
MXXWLL & Kaiit - ROLLITUP
Mansions - Heel Theme
Judas Priest - You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
Arctic Monkeys - Star Treatment
Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Reverence
Killswitch Engage - Rose of Sharyn
Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen
“Drive” is one of those songs that reaches deep inside your soul and hits like an avalanche. I remember getting turned on to Automatic For the People in my sophomore year of college (a cliché, I’m aware) and being absolutely shocked that the “It’s End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” jokers could pull off something this arresting. “Drive,” to me, is the kind of song you listen to on a long night trip in your car, where you’re alone with your thoughts and the whole of your existence. The acoustic lines tumble against distant guitar theatrics but it’s Michael Stipe’s haunting voice that makes you wonder where you are and where you’re going.
I had almost forgotten that Hot Mulligan dropped the incredible You’ll be Fine this year. I think this is in part because the album breezes by (31 mins) and it’s of the emo revival variety that channels the 2003-2006 scene but with tighter, more midwestern licks. “OG Bule Sky” is a a hell of an opening salvo, with lyrics verging on Phoebe Bridgers levels of devastation:
I lost the pictures we had
Left you years ago
I missed your funeral
I was hiding back at home
If you need a good cry, or wonder what would have happened if bands like Saves The Day or Fall Out Boy took a less commercial direction, check this out.
SHEEESH is something of a sunnier, kindred spirit to Knxwledge’s 1988—carrying with it the laid back atmosphere of (and best thing about) Los Angeles, CA. Naturally, I had to include this cut from MXXWLL and Kaiit, which is only a slice of the wonderful beats on this largely instrumental project. “ROLLITUP” is all Playstation glitch, g-funk squeals, and, like the namesake of this zine—vibes. Perfect for those days where you want to stretch out under the clouds.
Mansions always seemed like that emo-adjacent band for people a little too in love with Hidden in Plain View and The Juliana Theory—which is to say, two bands that aren’t bad but always felt overrated when it comes to the early aughts nostalgia train. I was surprised to find that there’s much more lurking under the surface for Mansions after spinning the Deserter EP, and that they sound nothing like those bands at all. “Heel Theme” is a great tension ballad, full of brooding electronics, simmering guitars, and disassociated vocals. The aura of violence lurks just around the corner here, which is as terrifying as it is alluring.
I can speak for hours as to why Screaming For Vengeance is my favorite ‘Priest album. The short of it is that it’s the purest distillation of their motorcycle leather daddy aesthetic, with riffs that are lean rather than glammy (like some of their other 80s albums). “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” is a quintessential metal touchstone, like if you were to do a taxonomy on the elements of a metal song, this is the song they would use for the uneducated. The chorus is massive, the fretwork vaguely classical but molten and electric. The confidence and attitude are why we’re seduced by metal’s mediations on power and Judas Priest are nothing short of aggressively confrontational. After all, we have one life. Might as well live it up.
I’ve got a thing for the space-lounge lizard act Alex Turner is selling. I know it’s not the typically brit-pop they cut their teeth on, but the gentle backing coos, the stutter stops drumming, and lazy piano of “Star Treatment” is tailor made for a Saturday night. Martini, anyone?
It may not seem like it based on some of the playlists thus far but I have an absolute obsession with 90s trip-hop. I love the narcotic pacing, the retro futurist tones. Sneaker Pimps always seem to live in the shadow of Massive Attack and Portishead but Low Place Like Home deserves just as much credit for the genre’s initial wave of success. “6 Underground” is the kind of grimy, sci-fi drift that’s perfect for late nights in front of your computer, or soundtracking your favorite cyberpunk movie. Kelli Dayton’s voice floats through digital detritus and acoustic samples, serving melancholia and space station chic at the same time. I guess the record scratches and warbles might sound dated to some but the junkyard aesthetic and broken sound collage approach to the genre has always been the appeal for me.
I saw The Jesus and Mary Chain open for Nine Inch Nails on the 2018 Cold Black and Infinite Tour, which was about as badass as you can possibly imagine—all smoke machines, leather jackets, and dread. They closed with “Reverence” and turned their noise inspired psychedelia into a churning, droning jam session that easily stretched past 10 mins. There’s nothing quite like experiencing the entire Bill Graham Civic Auditorium scream “I WANNA DIE JUST LIKE JESUS CHRIST.” Legends.
Big dumb metalcore will always have a place in my heart and so will the Howard Jones era of Killswitch Engage. You could really pick any song off The End of Heartache (including the post-rock by way of country interludes) and have a wonderful addition to any playlist. For this one, I realized I hadn’t spun “Rose of Sharyn” in a while so I felt due, allowing the mechanized precision and military-grade chug wash over me. Killswitch Engage have had an interesting trajectory given that Jones was eventually replaced with original vocalist Jesse Leach, but Leach’s vocals always came across as cookie cutter to me. Jones could do the big tough guy scream but his voice was versatile enough to provide almost operatic low end during the chorus. I always thought that differentiated Killswitch Engage from their peers, which is why I hold this song, and album, in such high esteem.
I didn’t mean to end the playlist with a Sharyn/Sharon double feature but here we are. “Seventeen” is a striking snapshot in time with Van Etten all at once reminiscing, guiding, and celebrating her past and present selves. The Springsteen by way of electronica outro is positively cinematic. We should all be so lucky to in a position to consider the totality of our lives one day. Here’s to hoping we all can, in the same revelatory way.