I decided to do this thing this March where every evening, after shutting off my work screen and before turning on my leisure screens, I talk the long way from my home office to the living room, walk down to the lake and take a picture. I then walk back home and post it on instagram together with a song (quote) I think of that day.
I having so much fun with this excercise, I decided to create a playlist with these Songs by the Lake on Spotify.
Find the playlist here.
Touche Amore feat. Manchester Orchestra – Limelight
“It’s not how it was but it’s not getting lighter
So let’s embrace the twilight
While burning out the limelight”
Cloud Nothings – Oslo
“Am I older now or am I just another age?
Am I at the end or will there be another change?
Am I older now or am I just another age?
Am I at the end or will there be another change?”
Blood Red Shoes – Boring By The See
“Let’s consider a change of scenery
It’s getting boring by the sea
Pictures, pictures, pictures.”
Julien Baker – Relative Fiction
“Maybe when you get off of work could you meet me
We could go barreling down on the main street
You could try watching while I run through the high-beams”
Off of her beautiful new record Little Oblivions.
Worriers – Letter From An Occupant
“The tune you’ll be humming forever
All the words are replaced and wrong
With a shower of “yeahs” and “whatevers”
Great The New Pornographers cover off of the new Worriers’ The Old Friends EP.
Tegan and Sara – The Con
“Calm down, I’m calling you to say
I’m capsized, staring on the edge of safe
Calm down, I’m calling back to say
I’m home now, I’m coming around, coming around”
The Con came up on Hanif Abdurraqib’s excellent and eclectic Love Songs for the Coming Springtime playlist, and I was immediately transported back to the last summer I lived in Freiburg. A summer that was both great and terrible. Depression and grad school is a wild mix.
Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)
“People try and hide the night underneath the covers”
I read a surprisingly good interview with Julien Baker today, in which she created a great playlist, including one of my all-time favorites by Arcade Fire. The reason it was surprising is that it was published on GQ.
Jonah Matranga – Don’t Give
“I know I could never really know the way you’re feeling
But I’ll try
I know things or you might not be who or where you want them
And that’s fine”
The Psongs album by Jonah Matranga is so purposeful, so earnest. On some days, I may be too cynical for this. On other days, Psongs may stop me from being too cynical and help me not give up. Especially when Jonah’s voice – one of the loveliest male voices in rock’n’roll – is harmonizing with Chris Carrabba.
Phoebe Bridgers – Kyoto
“I wanted to see the world
Then I flew over the ocean
And I changed my mind”
I think the Fiona Apple album is fantastic and I like it a lot, and Brittany Howard’s music is great, but Phoebe Bridgers should’ve won one of the Grammys in the alt/rock/folk categories.
Fiona Apple – Shameika
Shameika is a truly incredible song and performance.
Miss Grit – Blonde
“I’ve got nothing to say”
I love how everything crescendos and crashes around the ‘I’ ve got nothing to say’ line.
The Impostor EP by Miss Grit grows with every listen. The comparisons to Mitsky and St. Vincent are obvious, but accurate.
Lucy Dacus – Thumbs
“I lovе your eyes
And he has thеm
Or you have his
‘Cause he was first
I imagine my thumbs on the irises
Pressing in until they burst”
Finished Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties, an excellent short story collection full of eerie horror stories that (besides some supernatural elements) could be fiction or creative nonfiction.
I get the same eerie horror feeling from the newly-released Lucy Dacus song Thumbs. Which is apparently very much based on real life.
The Juliana Theory – If I Told You This Was Killing Me, Would You Stop?
Got frustrated at work today, so I did what all self-disrespecting aging millennials do: Put on a hoodie, sang along to some early aughts emo/pop-punk – and kept working.
Now, I’m not talking about the timeless midwest emo classics of that era. No, I listened to The Juliana Theory’s Emotion is Dead album.
Tune-yards – Cannonball
Tune-Yards cover The Breeder’s classic Cannonball, and it’s buzzing, fuzzing, awesomeness.
The Burning Hell – Fuck the Government, I Love You
“Pass the wine, fuck the government, I love you/
Three statements overheard at once in the crowded room/
But I could not be sure which one had come from you/
So I passed you the wine and said yes, fuck the government, I love you too.”
I of course see my love every day, but I miss everything else implied in this chorus and have been vibing with this song all day. Check out the video on YouTube and you’ll know what I mean.
Laura Jane Grace – The Calendar Song
Wish I was going some place tropical
Wish I was going to Portugal
I wanna walk the streets of Oporto
I wanna be someone that I don’t know
Floating blind in a highway bed
Sleep-speeding towards oblivion
Lay me down in a sea of dreams
Take me away from where I’ve been
Off of the Stay Alive album Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! released last year. One of my favorite #stayhome records.
Dad Bod – 4/9
Forever miss a part of me I’d never meet/
And just like the moon tugs at the waves/
I’ll feel you pull me close across this cavernous divide/
It’s pouring here is it raining there too
As we’re thawing out of an isolated winter into a sad spring, I’m really vibing with the music of Dad Bod from Minnesota. They released a full-band version of 4/9 and they just signed with No Sleep Records, so I’m really looking forward to more!
Riot Spears – Devil and the Sea
Riot Spears from Berlin released Bad, a really great grunge/riot grrrl record on Friday, 26 March 2021. Devil and the Sea is my favorite so far. Check it out on bandcamp.
Karo – Sing Out, Heart!
Karo played a set for a Glockenbachwerkstatt livestream, and it was wonderful (because she’s great and I haven’t seen her in a long time) and weird (because livestream concerts are weird). The link is still available, I think.
Tocotronic – Im Zweifel für den Zweifel
“Im Zweifel für den Zweifel
Das Zaudern und den Zorn
Im Zweifel fürs Zerreißen
Der eigenen Uniform”
Against Me! – True Trans Soul Rebel
Happy Trans Day of Visibility! And now, cis people, stop looking at the sundown pictures, support trans people and specially do more to protect trans kids.
Really From – I’m From Here
“If you ask me where I’m from/
I’ll say the rage, the lights the sea/
I’ll say the pain passed down on me/
And when you say it’s not enough/
I will pretend it won’t get to me/
Won’t let it get to me.”
I’m From Here is the stand-out song on Really From’s new self-titled record. The whole album is great, a mix of emo, indie rock and jazz. That trumpet is so beautiful, the drumming is fantastic, the lyrics are great and deal with the experiences of the multi-racial band members (like being asked where you’re really from.) I can highly recommend it. The ablum is available on bandcamp, or in the European Topshelf Records store, which makes shipping more afforable for us in Germany.
CLARITY AND CHAOS 