Hockey Teeth – Sleepytime
Similar artists: Harbor Day, Foxy Apollo, Early Eyes, Title Fight
Genre: Shoegaze, Indie Pop, Dream Pop
Becoming a big-time entertainer, usually, involves a lot of lying about your true intentions. Unless you’re a member of Motley Crue, and your fans are, for the most part, the kind of people who drive stolen vehicles drunk for pure, personal entertainment, you can’t just tell people that you want to get famous, rich and have people give you money.
No, no, everyone’s publicist has instructed our most famous entertainers to use interviews as opportunities to declaire their adhere to one noble pursuit or another. Some are supporters of a humanitarian issue. Others have dreamed of helping others since the days of being stuck in the cradle. And, of course, there are those who want to rule the world purely for the unselfish reason of wanting to make it a better place.
Hockey Teeth’s “Sleepytime” is not the kind of song written by someone whose ego forces them to attempt and build a cult of personality. No, this is a song about the miraculous powers of a good night’s sleep. It only seems fitting that the tune itself is wrapped in the warm and forgiving sounds of modern lo-fi indie-rock. Maybe Hockey Teeth could do better, but playing tunes and then getting some well-deserved rest is enough for people who are content with themselves.
King Ropes – Breathing
Similar artists: Wilco, Silver Jews, Purple Mountains, Bill Callahan, Songs: Ohia
Genre: Alt Country, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
We might as well give up. I should be the first to do it. There aren’t nearly enough interesting people making rock music anymore to warrant writing stories about it. This ain’t gonna work unless I start telling you talent about singers robbing banks in Mexico, hiding off in the Guatemalan jungles and then going off to change their identity and live in a San Salvodar village.
That might make for a good movie, but most rockstars are actually coached by their publicists on making stories about how they spent their Summer holidays making the world a better place.
Worse of all, the people who actually possess the talent and who’ve acquired the experiences to make their rock songs interesting are stuck in a perpetual wave of anxiety. Living out in the grand ol’ U.S.A. won’t help matters.
King Ropes’ “Breathing” could be an Instagram post, an ancient poem, or a great lo-fi rock song. It could work as any of those three and all of them together. The fact is that this is music made by someone that’s interesting enough to warrant writing about. The other fact is that this potentially great songwriter is fighting to get in front of themselves to do it. That’s not what Nicky 6 does, but then again, ol’ Nick never wrote lyrics about struggling to breathe in quite such a charming way.
