I had to get up early to attend a function this morning. I’ve very excited to share details next week, but that is the explanation for this getting out a little later than usual.

“22” – Hana Vu
Remember when turning 22 felt like you were getting old?

“22” – Taylor Swift
Had to do it.

“Ceasefire” – Frank Turner
Frank released a new album a week ago. It sounds like every Frank Turner album. Which means it is like 90% awesome but doesn’t really separate itself from his other music. Still plenty of good songs to choose from.

“LEECHES (PLAY DEAD!)” Suzie True
This band describes their sound as “If the Powerpuff Girls started a Blink-182 cover band.” Not sure about that, but this song sure is fun.

“May Ninth” – Khruangbin
Missed it by one day.

“Where Is My Mind” – The Pixies
Steve Albini, a giant in the alt/indie rock community, died suddenly earlier this week. He’s most famous for being the engineer for Nirvana’s In Utero album. However, the record label did not like his work and had another producer remix all the singles from that album. Thus, the songs you likely know best from it did not feature his sound. Several of the articles about his career mentioned this song as one of the best representations of the Albini Sound. He could be prickly and opinionated, but it seems like most people who worked with him loved him, and many of them shared wonderful stories of their interactions with him. RIP.

“Head Rolls Off” – Frightened Rabbit
Speaking of RIP, it was six years ago this week we lost Scott. As tends to happen, I watched several live versions of this song, too. The difference between the band’s AV Club performance, recorded sometime in the spring of 2018 and released just five days before his death, and this charming video is always so striking. You could tell he was in a bad way in the ’18 performance. It also amazes me each year when I watch this that the original video is such poor quality. I guess the source tapes are lost and the record company had to rely on some poor digital copy?

Keep making tiny changes.

“Run Runaway” – Slade
I never really got Slade. That’s true of most Americans, though. They were a massive band in the UK but this was their biggest US hit, making it to #20. This week in ’84 it was at #34.