My buddies in the band Tower Defense released a new video today for a new song called "Sea Ranch." I've always been a fan of what Tower Defense does and this new piece is certainly a sign that they're continuing to improve as a band, not degrade.
I never thought I'd sing along so heavily with the lyrics "Microscopic flecks of iron // Describing arcs of sound" but here I am, hollering along!
It's a song about cassette tapes. It's a song about pollution. It's a song about the the unstoppable force of water. But mostly it's just an enjoyable rock song that shows a band having a load of fun together.
I recently learned of the passing of Sonatore; a Nashville based photographer and musician that I admired a great deal. His Instagram is filled with phenomenal polaroids from top to bottom and his Bandcamp was always a compelling and rewarding listen.
I only met him once but engaged with him a few times online. He was delightful and, clearly, immensely talented. I don't know what happened to cause his departure but I am bummed about it. I hope you'll take a moment to cruise his Instagram; it really is quite good.
I've found myself revisiting the musical works of 12 Rods lately. They were a Minneapolis based band that was primarily active from the mid-90s to 2004; releasing three fantastic full-length albums and a couple great EPs. If you consider yourself a fan of Self or Failure or that ilk, it's likely up your alley. They are supposedly gearing up to release new music. To that end, I've been diving back in deep to their whole catalog. I don't have the objective perspective to know if it's a good listen now as a new listener but it checks all the right boxes for me.
As part of that deep dive, I always came across this podcast episode with primary songwriter Ryan Olcott. It's a 2-hour chat and it's quite satisfying. It's also incredibly unfortunate how beat down he can come across because he truly is a talent.
Quick 3 minute piece about a job I never thought about. Stunning shots from inside the Memorial. Why this is manual labor is beyond me but makes for an interesting profile.
The plan with this one is to release each track from the EP on its own, every two weeks - with the full release dropping on Apr 28th. Haven't really released something in this fashion before so it'll be fun to see how that pans out.
Nifty little trash can thingie that takes your food and composts it. Maybe not revolutionary but extremely well presented. Unclear why you must mail the compost back instead of donating locally but maybe that’s Phase 2. Into this.
I'm making a very conscious effort this month to release more music on yk Records. Having 3 releases for 2022 isn't bad but I wanna do more! To that end...
Today, The Medium released two new songs today - "She's Got It" / "Moon Rocks". Songwriter Shane Perry says "These songs are dedicated to my wife Kacy, who I love very much, and my dead plant Tori Jade, who I didn’t love enough."
I'm going to go out on a limb and say I think these are probably the two best songs the group has released. That's a tough thing to say because I like a lot of their previously released catalog but something about these two really strikes me.