To Yo – Soaring
Similar artists: Kikagaku Moyo, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Orions Belte, Goat, Wooden Shjips
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
Apart from GeoGuessr, music is the best and most affordable way to travel without leaving your room or having to wipe the mustard stains off your chin. Both work to enrich our lives, show us the world and make us ask questions about our own place in it.
Music, in particular, has the power to express things about faraway places that can’t be put into words, that don’t show up in an encyclopedia entry, or that are simply too fragile to say out loud.
And it’s not just an accompaniment for people for places to which you could physically travel. No, it’s a description of places that could exist but you can only get to in your dreams.
Yes, psychedelic music is a great travel guide. To Yo’s “Soaring” is a Japanese-made song built on South American rhythms about difficult-to-find dreamworlds. To Yo make the kind of music that you need in order to step outside of your skin for a second, and see everything as it could be.
Rebuilder – Hold On
Similar artists: The Hold Steady, Against Me!, The Bouncing Souls
Genre: Skate Punk, Pop Punk, Indie Rock
At one point, every ambitious artist starts to believe that everything that they do is art. They start publishing their diary, taking photos of their dog, or scribbling nonsense in colorful crayons. Worse still, they feel the need to share it with the world and get fussy when the world doesn’t appreciate it.
John Lennon made records of himself and his wife screaming. Lou Reed made records of the sound his guitar made while leaning against an amp. Andy Warhol took photos of soda cans or something. All were equally awful and missed the point.
What Rebuiler does in “Hold On” is to create an honest diary of the kinds of things that most people bury from themselves and others. More importantly, they bring these rarely discussed feelings into a palatable pop-punk format. “Hold On” is not an anthem to bitterness and resentment but a hopeful song about overcoming terrible struggles.
