Bus People – Skaters
Similar artists: Pixies, Beach House, Portishead
Genre: Pop Punk
I was recently stuck in a hotel room for a couple of days, and there was not much to entertain myself with other than a Netflix subscription. It was during those couple of days that I watched hundreds of movie starts and flicked through hundreds of others. The biggest surprise for novices of movie streaming sites is just how few surprises there are or how deep you have to go to find them.
The fact is that most of us can predict how most movies are going to go. It’s not just because we are smart but also because the people writing and directing the movies are not. We’ve just been trained to do that. The same goes for other forms of media. Most of it follows a formula, and we’ve encountered enough of it to know just how it works. It’s a little boring, to be honest, and it calls for more eccentrics to join the ranks of paid creatives.
I swear that Bus People’s “Skaters” was designed as a pop-punk anthem in the Machine Gun Kelly. But we’re all so very lucky that it ended up sounding nothing like it. Instead, with the lush production and the quirky, chaotic vocals, it ends up sounding like the music played at a maternity session. There’s a real warmth and air of hopefulness about it all, and the song wouldn’t end up being quite as compelling were this not made by people who can’t or won’t accept simple formulas.
BEACH BØNES – Personality Crisis
Similar artists: Bad Nerves, Wine Lips, FIDLAR, Wavves, Green Day
Genre: Skate Punk, Punk, Pop Punk
There are black metal artists who go out every night and fake sacrifice naked fans to Satan who know more about their merchandise earnings than their accountants. When or if all fails, they could teach classes on makeup, merchandising and, of course, business planning. Those are wonderful skills to possess, but I’m not sure how much they’ll impress Satan.
There used to be something endearing about people who dedicated a good chunk of their lives to playing in punk or metal bands. Their choice seemed totally hopeless! But, of times, their music was amazing. That made them the true romantics, people who just wanted to be part of something beautiful, no matter what the cost was. The moment you saw one of them playing pop covers in a wedding band, part of your belief in people was shattered.
BEACH BØNES’ “Personality Crisis” is the sonic equivalent of an angry Neapolitan pouring espressos down your throat. It’s unhinged and jittery. But it’s also funny. The tune is about seeing musician friends around changing to try and pay the bills. It sounds like BEACH BØNES’ friends have traded in the music they loved for white-guy rasta dreads and baggy jeans. And while that’s sad, it’s also hilarious.
