TSS #015 - August 27th, 2023
dolmas, important questions, and indie-twang
Good evening + happy Sunday folx.
Woof-a-roni pizza. Another doozy of a week.
Sometimes I feel like there is so much to do. Too much to do. And it paralyzes me.
I am sure everyone has felt the feeling.
This on top of a layer of deep existential inner-dialogue has really exhausted me this week.
But we continue to move forward.
Trying to do the best I can.
Trying to choose the “inner-good.”
Trying to keep all my promises.
LUCKILY - there was a lot of good this week too.
food
Got to learn, roll, and FLIP some tasty dolmas with friends this week. A true labor of love. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves here.
body
I also got to work the body via some lifts, climbing, and knockin’ soc this week - and that felt really good. Still getting back into the swing of things/back into routine here.
friends friends friends
Brock and Becca (from the last post) were in Austin this weekend! Two weekends in a row?! crazy!
Got to meet some of their friends, swim in bodies of water, and eat good food.
Rish (from
) hosted the first-ever SKEWERFEST2023. I wish I had better pictures here. He’ll probs write about it in his next post soooo I won’t spoil it for ya ;) but it ‘twas a great time.
throughlines?
Great food, great friends.
Although I am feeling very stretched, stressed - I am glad I am writing this letter, if nothing more than to feel some gratitude for the above.
Lastly, I didn’t get to have a proper study this weekend (again) + I’ve felt a spur to write a longer letter.
I am planning on doing an H1 review prior to September 1st (writing this here for accountability), so I am going to keep this one short. Please enjoy.
the most important question of your life
“what are you willing to suffer for?”
I’ve been thinking about this question a lot this month.
indie twang ?! // a country revival !?
Is it me…or are quite a bit of the indie/alternative folks adding a lil twang flavor to their new releases?
I got back into a Big Thief kick when I was in London. Since then, my Release Radar has been POPPIN’ with these indie x country twang x kinda sad/folk type songs!
Now, I originally thought, “oh this is probably just the algorithm feeding me what I’ve been listening to recently,”
BUT! What I find perplexing is that the songs that I am listening to, are all NEW RELEASES.
SO.
My theory: I believe there is a “country/twang/folk” bubble that’s happening within the indie/alternative scene rn. I believe that this is spurred on by bands such as Big Thief and Wednesday who have successfully integrated the telecaster-twang to be more enjoyable/patable to a wider audience.
We’ve been seeing this trend already in the more popular spaces with the likes of Noah Kahan and Zach Bryan.
On a deeper level, I think folks are craving simplicity. And nothing screams simplicity like good ‘ol folk/country music.
foundation
Big Thief
Wednesday
Noah Kahan
Zach Bryan
build
Slow Pulp
Slaughter Beach, Dog
MJ Lenderman
Bilmuri
If you are interested in this wacky theory at all, I encourage you to take a listen to a few of the “foundation” tracks, look at their release dates, and see when/how they popped off.
Then do the same for the “build” tracks, listen to a few of songs from their past discography, and then let me know your take.
Regardless of if this is true or not, I’ve been pleasantly surprised and am looking forward to more!
As always, if you’ve made it this far, thank you.
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ML,
woof-a-roni-toni