Indie kids know that the Christmas holiday season doesn’t begin with the annual Macy’s Street Takeover to Venerate Commerce, nor the stampedes of box-store customers. The first snowfall, Linus quoting scripture, colorful lights adorning city streets, inflatable Santas and reindeers … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Phoebe Bridgers, “Day After Tomorrow”

“Flush,” the new single from the Brighton-based band Thyla, is about the exploitative nonsense that happens online as bad actors fuel outrage for fun and profit. The very modern concern is given an appealingly retro sonic treatment, playing with the … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Thyla, “Flush”

Listening to the new Cate Le Bon single, “Moderation,” creates the sensation of being set adrift. It’s not some gentle flow, though. It’s a smooth yet brisk cascade across waters with sunlight reflecting off it like paparazzi flashbulbs. Le Bon … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Cate Le Bon, “Moderation”

“Tend the Garden,” the new single from Australian band Gang of Youths, pops into with strident assurance. There’s a tight little drum fill and then a luxuriant wash of synth lines. Lead singer David Le’aupepe almost immediately murmurs the opening … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Gang of Youths, “Tend the Garden”

On her new single “Puppy and a Truck,” Jenny Lewis reaches a pinnacle of easygoing self-assurance. As a songwriter, Lewis forged her legend, alongside her Rilo Kiley bandmates, by crafting pointed, poignant, decorticating songs about living with depression. Her process … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Jenny Lewis, “Puppy and a Truck”

On her new single “Cleo,” Shygirl takes the groove seriously. Augmented by strings, the song locks in to a smooth house beat as Shygirl claims the name Cleopatra and coos “You got me feeling like a movie star.” The track … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Shygirl, “Cleo”

Guitarist Leo Nocentelli helped form New Orleans band the Meters in the middle of the nineteen-sixties. The mostly served as studio backups on recordings made for Allen Toussaint’s Sansu Enterprises record label, a sort of Funk Brothers of the swampy … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Leo Nocentelli, “Give Me Back My Loving”

A mild panic rose a couple years ago, when Mitski announced she was withdrawing from the music-biz grind for an indefinite period of time. She had to take to social media to remind her devotees that “indefinite” is foremost a … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Mitski, “Working for the Knife”

It’s been twenty-six years since Alanis Morissette released Jagged Little Pill. The album was a sensation, launching her to pop superstardom. The relative suddenness of her transition from obscurity to omnipresence combined with her youth made it see like a … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Deep Sea Diver, “Hand in My Pocket”

Hailing from Portland (the Maine one, not the Oregon one), Weakened Friends hit that fuzzy-end-of-the-lollipop sweet spot with their new single, “Quitter.” It’s got all the elements that time served in my particular era — or eras, really — of … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Weakened Friends, “Quitter”