CHARLESCANTBREATHE – Gin & Tonic
Similar artists: Dream Wife, Sunflower Bean, Goat Girl
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Most of the great songs or stories about drinking are written by old men with not a lot of steam left and few new tales on the horizon. That’s how they trick us into thinking that what they’re doing is courageous or exciting. But the truth is that most of your Bukowskis and Kerouacs had no place left to go by the time their tall glasses intersected with their writing desks.
And, of course, as rock n’ roll tends to do, these stories are usually exaggerated. The old man is suddenly made to appear like some kind of rebel, taking a stand against the injustices of the world. What about all of the other stories of drink and misery? What about all of the other characters that could talk about it or the anxiety that usually precedes this kind of tale?
CHARLESCANTBREATHE’s “Gin & Tonic” is an honestly beautiful and miserable indie-rock song about drinking and wasting time. There’s little here designed to sound heroic. There’s little here that sounds hopeful. But there’s a bit of gallows humour hidden in plain sight. Besides it all, if that’s not enough to charm you, the chorus very well might.
Zoe Boekbinder – Mycelium
Similar artists: Ani DiFranco, Gracie and Rachel
Genre: Indie Folk
Almost every coming-of-age drama is designed in much the same way. And you’ve probably seen enough movies in your life to know exactly how one is supposed to flow. They almost always start with the protagonist in a position of weakness. Someone’s died, they’re getting kicked out of school, or their long-term romantic partner has done them wrong.
They then set out on a quest for self-discovery. But, and this is important, they make a lot of mistakes along the way. They’re filled with self-hatred, maybe are nursing a terrible chemical addiction, or are somehow mentally unstable. Finally, after they’ve purged all of that out of their system, the truth reveals itself. Usually, they are alone when this happens. It is at this precise moment that the movie director needs a song. Not just any song. Something that sounds like it’s dragged its wheels through the dirt and the grime of this world.
That movie soundtrack will need a song like Zoe Boekbinder’s “Mycelium,” a beautifully down-and-out folk song about how the end has no end. Isn’t that something to rejoice about? “They say you cannot destroy energy.” Boekbinder is the kind of singer who recites the truth in poetic form as if cooly predicting when the world is about to end and when it’s about to start up again. It takes a really long time to get to the stage when you can see that, and when you do, you will need a song like Zoe Boekbinder’s “Mycelium.”
