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Liner Notes (March 20th, 2022)

Posted by Jason Tate
Basketball

This week’s newsletter has early thoughts on the new MUNA album, thoughts on music out this week and other stuff I listened to, and a playlist of ten songs I think are worth your time.

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A Few Things

  • Hello, hello, hello. This newsletter is coming at you a day later this week because our planet went around the sun again, and I’m a year older. It was my birthday on Friday, and I spent the evening getting good food with Hannah, opening some gifts, and then on Saturday, we went to a friend’s baby shower and then went over to my mom’s for dinner and some family time. It was a fun birthday; Hannah got me a bunch of records I’d been wanting, my mom also got me a bunch of records I’d been wanting, my sister got me a gift card I will use to buy a record I’ve been wanting … and Hannah made an insane peanut butter chocolate cake that was incredible. I feel very lucky to have another year with those I love. Plus, after last year’s birthday being a slightly weird time in my mom’s garage and the year before being literally right as everything shut down and non-existent, this felt the most normal anything has in a few years now.
  • Slightly interesting fact: According to Last.fm, and all the caveats of when and when I wasn’t tracking my listening habits, I have already surpassed my listening totals for every year except last year.
  • John Oliver did a terrific segment on Ticketmaster prices last week that I think is worth the watch.

Sponsor

Roaring Paper Spring is the new album from the Ohio Elder Pop/Punk project SeeMoreGlass. It is a record for the fans of Early 2000s Pop Punk, who love heartfelt and honest lyrics, enjoy records with a concept and also are looking for a little hope in their lives. This is a record about learning how to move away from sadness, and let go of the things in life you can’t control. The Roaring Paper Spring resides in all of us, and it is up to us to decide if it is going to help us find order in the chaos, or keep us trembling in the dark. Check it out!

Today SeeMoreGlass has released the video for “Hope and Time Wait for No One.” And, if you make a meme or gif from the video, you can submit them here and the best one will win a free copy of the record on vinyl. (And the vinyl Kickstarter is currently running.)

Roaring Paper Spring (and the rest of the SeeMoreGlass discography) is available on Bandcamp for $5, and until March 22nd, 100% of the proceeds will be split between the charities RAINN and Rescue.org.

In Case You Missed It

Music Thoughts

  • MUNA is a band I’ve been praising for two albums now. And I’m about to make that three. Their new self-titled album comes out on June 24th, and it’s so damn good. It’s another synth-pop album with emotionally resonate lyrics, but I think this one feels like their most refined. Like they have firmly discovered who they are and are operating at the peak of their powers. I must have spun this at least five times last week and came away with something new to love every time. The funny thing is that I think the second single they released this week is one of the weaker ones on the album. It’s that strong.
  • In albums out this week, I enjoyed my first two spins of the new one from Charli XCX. I don’t think it’s breaking any new territory, but it feels very cohesive — like an album more than a collection of singles.
  • Oso Oso surprise dropped an album, and the first listen was a positive one. I’ll definitely be coming back to this again next week.
  • And a nice little surprise find this week was Overgrow’s Walls of Mirrors. I saw it posted in the forums, and I think it’s got maybe a little Moving Mountains vibe but firmly in that indie-rock vein.
  • In older albums this week I rediscovered Patrick Stump’s solo album, Soul Punk, after I saw a bunch of people talking about it in the Fall Out Boy thread. My opinion remains that it’s an excellent album that was ahead of its time. It’s catchy, and the shit Patrick took after releasing it was extremely uncalled for. And I think songs like “Run Dry” are up there with some of the best of his career. Creative pop-rock that still brings a smile to my face.
  • I also spent some time doing a Gaslight Anthem catalog run. They started teasing something on social media this week. I wonder, oh I wonder, what they could be up to.
  • And after seeing they announced some tour dates, I realized I had never checked out the past few Rx Bandits’ albums. I was really impressed with Gemini, Her Majesty and I had to go back and give Progress a few listens as well. That one takes me right back to my early college years. Fun band that I need to remember to keep in my rotation.
  • And I rounded out the week with Vein.fm’s latest hardcore offering, and a dalliance with Joystick!’s extremely good ska-punk album from last year. Fun week of music.

The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 37 different artists and 463 different tracks (580 scrobbles). My most played artist was The Gaslight Anthem, just beating out MUNA, but my most played album, by farrrrrrr, was the new self-titled album from MUNA. (Due out June 24th.) Here is my Top 9 from last week, and you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm.

Entertainment Thoughts

  • Dog was pretty much the safe family-friendly movie I expected it to be. And that made for an evening with a decent heartwarming film; there are worse ways to spend a night.
  • For my birthday, I got to pick the movie, and I decided to do a re-watch of the latest Spider-Man movie. It’s still my favorite of the Tom Holland films by a wide margin, and I liked it even better the second time. The comfort of my couch, a beer, and a pause button made it a much more relaxing watch. Most of my quibbles come down to some directorial decisions, but the film itself is strong and works for me.
  • We began The Book of Boba Fett as something we were going to watch weekly, but the first two episodes didn’t grab me enough to want to keep that up. So we waited and then watched the rest of them last week. The last three episodes are good, when it basically becomes The Mandalorian. The rest was more miss than hit for me. I just never felt invested in the characters or story and found it … floundering. But, the last three episodes were a whole lot of fun and I think made the show as a whole worth watching.

Random and Personal Stuff

Ten Songs

Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.

  1. KennyHoopla – Dirty White Vans
  2. Charli XCX – Good Ones
  3. Oso Oso – Nothing to Do
  4. Rx Bandits – Ruby Cumulous
  5. Overgrow – Spread Thin
  6. The Gaslight Anthem – Rollin and Tumblin
  7. Joystick – GGGGHost
  8. Rolo Tomasi – Mutual Ruin
  9. Vein.fm – Versus Wyoming
  10. Patrick Stump – Run Dry

This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Community Watch

The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:

The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by xbrokendownx in the “2022 NFL Season” thread.

Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.

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