Yesterday, ESG were slated to play a show at Oakland’s Crybaby. The South Bronx band (whose “UFO” is one of the most sampled songs in history) canceled last-minute, sharing a statement on social media saying the “environment was marked by toxic masculinity, which fostered hostility and disrespect.”
Last night, Foo Fighters announced their surprise live return, which is happening tonight at San Luis Obispo’s Fremont Theater. It’s the band’s first concert in over a year, and it’s their first with drummer Ilan Rubin replacing the fired Josh Freese and first since frontman Dave Grohl announced he had fathered a child outside of his marriage, which halted the band’s touring plans.
Did Djo name his album The Crux because it rhymes with “deluxe”? No one can prove he didn’t! I thought actor-musician Joe Keery acquitted himself well on that April LP, and then I saw Pavements and thought he was amazing as a fictionalized version of himself going method to play Stephen Malkmus. Now, after trickling out new songs all week (starting with Monday’s “Carry The Name“), Djo has surprise-released a whole second 12-song album called, indeed, The Crux Deluxe. Move over, Swag II!
Cafuné is the Brooklyn-based duo of Sedona Schat and Noah Yoo, who met at NYU a decade ago and have been steadily churning out well-made alternative pop music ever since. Today they’ve got a new album out, Bite Reality, which leans into rock guitars without sacrificing one iota of pop appeal. I can imagine the soaring, distorted “e-Asphyxiation” being mistaken for a masterful new Sky Ferreira single; it’s immediately followed by the clean, pensive “Sore Spot,” which is mesmerizing for entirely different reasons. From the songwriting to the production to the engaging performance, this album put its hooks in me immediately. It’s not pioneering some bold new sound, but if you’re seeking something stylish and catchy, you won’t be disappointed.
It’s one of life’s simple joys, like a cool breeze or a hot cup of coffee — or maybe even like a cool breeze and a hot cup of coffee, together: when two very different rappers team up on a track and their styles gel exceptionally well. One instance of the phenomenon arrives today in the form of “Young Player,” a new Luh Tyler single featuring Larry June. Luh Tyler, a young Florida drawler, handles the first verse. Larry June, a smooth-voiced baritone emcee from San Francisco, is on the mic for the second verse. They both sound ultra chilled-out over 614ASE production that feels like vaporwave G-funk, but their diction and vocal textures create the most pleasing of contrasts. Watch the Salty-directed video below.
Charly Bliss spent 9/11 on a boat. The beloved NYC pop-rockers played their first show in 10 months Thursday night on the Liberty Belle, which set sail from Pier 36 and made its way under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, looping around the Statue of Liberty before returning to port. YouTube user IronChefWong was there, helpfully filming the whole show. The footage he uploaded today includes a new song, “Madrid,” which sounds as electrifying as anything the band has released to date, plus a very fun show-closing cover of Yellowcard’s “Ocean Avenue” (because they were on the water, I guess). According to his notes, their setlist also included Phantom Planet’s The O.C. theme “California,” but the boat was already docked, so the show came to an end. Check out “Madrid” and “Ocean Avenue” below.
Mac DeMarco is out there making all the promo stops in support of his new album Guitar, and he couldn’t be happier about it. In a recent New Yorker profile headlined “Is Mac DeMarco The Last Indie Rock Star?” he explained that he cannot relate with musicians who complain about going on tour:
Look, I don’t know what to tell you. Things happen. We don’t get to control current events. You might not be delighted to learn that Limp Bizkit have released a new song called “Makin’ Love To Morgan Wallen,” but that’s what happened. It’s a real song. It’s out on the marketplace now. Someone, somewhere, is going to be happy about this news. Can you begrudge this person their joy? Life is hard. If someone is happy about the existence of a new Limp Bizkit song called “Makin’ Love To Morgan Wallen,” then let them be happy.
Pink Floyd released their eighth studio album Wish You Were Here on September 12, 1975, which means that today is that LP’s 50th anniversary. Much of the album’s running time was given over to “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” the band’s nine-part tribute to their troubled ex-frontman Syd Barrett. Wish You Were Here got tepid reviews when it first came out, but it has since achieved the same kind of canonical classic-rock status as its 1973 predecessor Dark Side Of The Moon, and its title track is a dorm-room acoustic-guitar staple. Former Pink Floyd bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour seem unlikely to patch things up anytime soon, but they’re not in control of the Pink Floyd business entity anymore anyway. Later this year, Sony Music will release a Wish You Were Here box set with some previously unreleased material.
Yumi Zouma recently went to see Oasis, but they’ve been busy with their own music too. All year the Christchurch combo has been kicking out new songs — “Bashville On The Sugar,” “Blister,” “Cross My Heart And Hope To Die” — and they can now confirm that all of those songs are on No Love Lost To Kindness, their first album since 2022’s spectacular Present Tense.