Stinkus – Take What You Want (feat. lophiile)
The history of pop music isn’t important. But to those like myself, who follow these kinds of things like other follow sports or 24/7 war coverage, I can help narrow things down.
Pop music can be divided into two eras. In one, pop stars look really pretty, dress in expensive clothing, and get their songs written for them by other people. Then there’s the time when pop music looks like it’s made by college dropouts who wake and bake and have sold their old laptops for a second-hand guitar.
These two periods tend to follow one another cyclically, although pretty, rich-looking pop stars are in vogue for vastly more time. They are not, however, what excites this writer or the readers of this website.
The fact that this band is tactfully dubbed Stinkus should tell you most of what you need to know. Yes, your estimation is right. The group plays a kind of 90s-inspired slacker pop-rock on the single “Take What You Want,” with the kind of production Beck might’ve approved and the kind of hooks that Weezer might’ve first stolen. It’s all a lot of fun.
Cathedral Ceilings – Bill Berry
There has never been a better time to become a record collector. It’s not just because the alternative is to get a stupid hobby like riding a bike or climbing a mountain without a rope. It’s not because more and more people are getting rid of their record players at dirt-cheap prices. No, it’s mostly because of the real world and the news, with their varying degree of truthfulness, will just make you crazy.
Following the news also requires a good deal of effort if you want to properly keep up with what’s going on and vote for the most worthy candidate. Surely, you’re smarter than that, and unless you were born in the land of a brutal dictatorship like Slovakia, you shouldn’t care. No, I can tell you’re smart. But a used record player instead.
See where the obsession with record collecting got Cathedral Ceilings? Appreciating the R.E.M. drummer for a start. “Billy Berry” is an excellently catchy, groovy tune about the man who held the greatest alternative rock band together. Historians who are too afraid of having Michael Stipe in his war paint drive up to their house won’t say it, but R.E.M. wasn’t very good after Billy Berry went back to being a farmer. Cathedral Ceilings know it; they’re not afraid, and do you think they would’ve achieved all of this without a strong record collection?
