Chorduroy – Pawns
Similar artists: Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Wine Lips, Meatbodies
Genre: Punk, Post-Punk, Garage Rock
Look, life is all about making choices. The people who are able to make sensationally good choices are the ones who end up in positions of power and who’ll one day write a book about what it takes to be like them. The people who make terrible choices might be the ones playing songs in your headphones right at this moment.
These folks are usually not easy to deal with. They’re a nightmare for record label people. It’s especially bad nowadays. Not only do they need to find strategies to control them, but ever since pop music has become so formulaic and so obsessed with mining whatever is trendy and appealing, record label reps need to be convinced about the commercial potential of a style of music.
Chorduroy play zany garage-rock of the type that troublemakers back in the early dawn of electric guitar music played. “Pawns” is a beautifully unrefined song that, once played, will be left to dance around your mind for a long time. Is this the future or the past of pop music? That’s an irrelevant question. Some things are simply so good from their very beginning that nobody in their right mind would want to tinker with the formula. It’s unclear whether the folks in Chorduroy are in their right minds, but they certainly know a good formula.
mid – Call In 5
Similar artists: Fontaines D.C., glass beach
Genre: Punk, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Not many people have record collections anymore. Before you start weeping for the poor music stores (a problem that you should take dearly to your hearts, by the way), consider why people aren’t stepping inside of them as often anymore. The majority of folks prefer to carry a gigantic music collection on their phone in the form of an app.
There are evil things going on in that front, certainly. But for musicians, this could turn out to be a blessing. At no other point in history have musicians been able to access as much music for as little money as they do today. And, if they’re too lazy to search for it, all the radio stations and the music festivals will be happy to supply them with styles and musical artists that they would otherwise have never encountered.
mid’s “Call in 5” is a tense, nightmarish song. But it is also a danceable, colourful sound that sits at the heart of it. It plays with its influences as if genre delimitation were the worst thing in the world. That’s all a good thing! The rule book has been thrown out, and I will arrive at this sound through long sessions and experimentation. This just shows how ambition, existential dread, and a knack for blending influences cleverly can create new, exciting music.
