screaming into spring (with mannequin pussy)
april 2024
many liters of sweat into their sold out show at Basement East, MANNEQUIN PUSSY’s Missy Dabice asked everyone to be quiet.
synth warbled behind her. guitar twinkled. the crowd’s collective panting slowed to a steady breath. some people held up their hands in the shape of a heart, which was nice. weren’t we just slamming our bodies into each other?
Dabice considered why were were all there—hundreds of swaying bodies, her bandmates, SOUL GLO, a fellow Philly band who killed their opening set: to participate in a live show, of course. but Dabice had something less literal in mind.
she held her hand against her very dope leather bustier and mentioned a pit in her stomach. maybe we harbored such a pit, she suggested. maybe we felt anger. and maybe anger was, for us, too, a fraught emotion.
why, she asked, are we encouraged to suppress our anger? or contort it? or turn it against ourselves? and when we do feel it, how do we express it? can we scream? if so, where? our car? our pillow? why can’t we scream together?
i pictured a town square out of Invisible Cities built for public screaming. i realized she was asking us to scream on the count of three.
one
two
three
i don’t remember what song MANNEQUIN PUSSY went into after we screamed (see set list), but we resumed slamming our bodies into one another. we screamed, sang, and jumped. it was the sweatiest heaven i’ve ever known.
if you haven’t listened to MP’s latest album “I GOT HEAVEN”, you should. it’s the kind of pop-punk (much like JEFF ROSENSTOCK) that might be a gateway into the real stuff. it is every bit as good as the real stuff, albeit a little sweeter. and if it never delivered you to bands like SOUL GLO or CHAT PILE, that’d be just fine too. you still get to scream your fuckin lungs out. “SPLIT ME OPEN”, the album’s final track after a smattering of more hardcore fare, may be an all-time song for me. the concert, too, will probably remain one of the best live shows i’ve experienced.
that was tax day. two days earlier i saw STYROFOAM WINOS play at Betty’s. I saw them for the first time ever when they opened for WILD PINK at O.G. Basement on 4/8. i’m late to the party but i concur that WINOS are a local treasure. great chemistry, great musicians, and honest, original songs. it’s hard to avoid a comparison with another, two-guys-one-woman-where-one-of-the-guys-is-married-to-the-woman three piece YO LA TENGO, and i mean that in the best way. WILD PINK was great too—full band, pedal steel, impressively faithful to the quality of their studio tracks—absolutely rocked out.
when i went back for another cup of STYROFOAM WINOS, things were a little different. i think they were celebrating a friend’s wedding? and all three acts on the bill (JOELTON MAYFIELD, WILBY) were playing covers? still a blast, but my friends and i were maybe the only non-wedding-party people in the crowd. we danced to DOLLY PARTON (LOVE IS LIKE A BUTTERFLY) and a slate of 90s/00s treasures (KISS ME, TUBTHUMPING, SOAK UP THE SUN)1. the WINOS donned their JJ’s aprons for the occasion.
so, naturally MANNEQUIN PUSSY and WINOS (but not CHUMBAWAMBA) made it on my 4/24 playlist. how to describe the rest of it?… since march my playlists have jumped in song-count. march had 83 songs at 5hr5min. april clocked 94 songs, 5h51min. lots of big releases contributed: LIZZY MCALPINE, BEYONCE, VAMPIRE WEEKEND, BABEHOVEN, ENGLISH TEACHER, HOVVDY to name a few.2 CINDY LEE’s DIAMOND JUBILEE would have overpowered the whole playlist if it were available anywhere other than the famed geocities site.3
i’ve also been a bit more adventurous in my listening, including songs that may not be in a daily rotation but nonetheless feel important to capture (MOUNT EERIE’s “TINTIN IN TIBET”, POLVO’s “MY KIMONO”, “MEMORY LANE” by ELLIOTT SMITH"). lastly, i’ve been relying more on artist playlists. why not listen to the music your favorite musicians are listening to?
this month, after SOUR WIDOWS blessed us with a long-awaited release date for their debut album (“REVIVAL OF A FRIEND”) and a new single to boot (“CHERISH”), i listened to their SPRING REVOLUTION🌱 playlist and really connected with BABEHOVEN and DARI BAY—additionally, songs 35-47 either came directly from the playlist or were discovered thanks to the songs on there.
listening to BUCK MEEK’s “FRIENDS/HEROES” playlist, i uncovered yet another Michael Buishas project, this time REALLY BIG PINECONE, last time 0 STARS. Buishas is an intriguing character to me. he played in a band with BIG THIEF’s ADRIANNE LENKER and BUCK MEEK, called PENCIL. he’s both prolific and diverse in his musical output, with at least three different projects that i know of in addition to PENCIL. he makes zines, collages, comics, and ceramics. apparently he tunes pianos in his spare time. i emailed him once to say thanks for making music, but i never heard back.
i was powerless over LIZZY MCALPINE’s new album “OLDER”. i’m a sucker for expertly rendered pop and her music really does it for me. lots of heart-rending arrangements and thoughtful production. her voice is incisive and full of feeling. there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure.
also on BUCK’s “friends/heroes” playlist was Mat Davidson’s project TWAIN. at a BIG THIEF show I saw at Radio City Music Hall, ADRIANNE LENKER said that they once asked Davidson to join the band and he politely declined, but he’s a nearly ubiquitous presence in the BIG THIEF creative universe. he was one of three musicians who played on nearly every song on ADRIANNE’s album “BRIGHT FUTURE”. he’s an integral part of MEEK’s “TWO SAVIORS”. he played on and produced “HAUNTED MOUNTAIN”. TWAIN’s songs fit nicely among these other projects that pass through his hands. the lyrics are wry and profound (“a few more years of paradise/ then i’ll go to find my maker”). the guitar is intimate and familiar, yet the chord progressions are inventive. i cherish his near-constant presence in my musical world.
i think i threw some WYE OAK/FLOCK OF DIMES songs on the playlist by way of TŌTH (“DAFFADOWNDILLY”) by way of TWAIN, just because they seem like they’d be friends if they aren’t already. but also because Jenn Wasner, the genius behind both WYE OAK (duo with Andy Stack) and FLOCK OF DIMES, is playing at Basement East on 7/8 with PEDRO THE LION. i’ll be there. her album “HEAD OF ROSES” remains one of my favorites—stripped down acoustic pieces and hard-rocking, guitar-soloing tracks abound and her powerful, soaring voice graces each and every one of them.
i’ll end my playlist review with a group that’s near and dear: HOVVDY. two sensitive dudes who grew up in the south, so that resonates with me. i’ve long felt that we could enjoy each other’s company, share hobbies, be friends. Now that Will Taylor’s moved to Nashville anything is possible. their music reminds me of high school and driving in the summer. All of the best things that music can evoke. it reminds me of my actual friends. their new album only added to the catalog of songs that I can crank on a bike or in a car or any time I’m outside with the people I love or inside with the people I love. pitchfork threw it an 8.3 and i’m very happy for them.
why else is my playlist long and brimming with great music? probably because i’ve been doing a lot of the above… spending time with the people i love, making the most of spring’s arrival, the sun, the warmth, the fragrance. i drank my first $4 40oz beer at Schulman’s (peep the shirt). perhaps my healthiest, happiest month in recent memory. PEACE.
SHOWS IN MAY
WAXAHATCHEE / HOLLY HUMBERSTONE / NEIL YOUNG / CINDY LEE haha / KARA JACKSON / REAL ESTATE / BUCK MEEK / ANNIE WILLIAMS + STYROFOAM WINOS / whatever you invite me to
thanks Eli Motycka for helping me edit this
credit to Samantha Flener for remembering the songs
i have to address the abundance of LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III tracks from his project “HIGH WIDE AND HANDSOME: THE CHARLIE POOLE PROJECT”. it’s not a new release, which might have explained why i included more tracks from this album than any other on the playlist. it’s just a project i used to listen to when i first started playing banjo… i recently felt a vague craving WAINWRIGHT’s (and the accompanying players’) musicianship, playfulness, and loving attention paid to a folk music legend.
RIP my tickets to see them in Philly!
checkmate