Album Covers of Sour Prom and Live Through This. Courtesy of Geffen Records and DGQ Records. Fair use.
Okay, this topic is a little bit of a landmine, but you may have noticed that Courtney Love has been floating around in the news lately. We here at WKNC aren’t usually much for covering straight-up celebrity gossip, but the history of Love’s public image is personally fascinating to me, and the topic seems to be floating back into relevance for the first time in decades. We’ll try to keep things mostly above board.
Let’s start with the story that got this article rolling. Olivia Rodrigo, pop princess extraordinaire, has a concert film coming up, and for the promotional image, she recreated Love’s classic “Live Through This,” album art. That is a pretty cool callback, Rodrigo’s music is a teeny-bopper version of Love’s in a lot of ways, especially “Good 4 U,” and it’s nice to see her promoting a classic album by a pioneer of female-led rock.
Courtney Love did not agree with that assessment.
Yes, Love took to Instagram, remarking that it was rude for her and the photographer to not be consulted, and despite Rodrigo vocally stanning her, was generally dismissive and unhappy with her. This is, at least arguably, defensible, at least in the abstract, but reading what Love actually wrote left me confused. In fact, everything on Love’s social media left me kinda confused and put off. So, let’s talk about Courtney Love, and the past, present and future of her public image.
Cover art for "How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?"
Big Red Machine, a duo composed of Aaron Dessner of The National and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, has announced an album coming at the end of this summer. The album is named “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?” and will contain features from Fleet Foxes, Taylor Swift, Anaïs Mitchell, Sharon Van Etten and more. In fact, nine tracks on this 15 track project will contain features. This will be the indie-folk-rock duo’s sophomore album and will be released under the labels Jagjaguwar and 37d03d.
Upon teasing the release of this album, Swift fans almost immediately recognized that she would be involved with the project due to her particular handwriting. This was also suspected due to her past work with both Dessner and Vernon on her two most recent albums, “folklore” and “evermore.” Dessner also assisted in the production of “Fearless (Taylor’s Version).” Swift has two features on the album, on tracks “Birch” and “Renegade.”
Carly Bogie is a TikToker, Spotify playlist curator, and music lover. I first stumbled across Carly on TikTok (@hahakcoolgtgbye), where she was showing her audience a playlist she had made. I’ve been following her for months as her following has increased and so has her quality of content. Carly has amassed over 66 thousand followers on TikTok, and her Spotify closely follows that number, clocking in at over 65 thousand followers. With over 200 public playlists, some with thousands of followers, encapsulating themes from Harry Potter houses, colors and enneagram placements, Carly has perfected the art of making playlists.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Carly and talking about all things music.
What inspired you to start making music TikToks? And what came first: your TikTok or your music Instagram?
I’ve always been someone who really loves music and I love talking about music and finding new artists… and sharing new music with my friends. And it kind of got to the point where I was like, I’m talking to my friends so much about music, like, they’re probably getting so annoyed, it’d be fun to have an outlet where I can… do that. And me and one of my friends were kind of joking around and being like, oh, like, let’s see, like, who can get famous on TikTok first, but then I started posting stuff about music and a few of them… kind of took off a little bit. And I was like, oh, there’s a place for this… I can start doing this more and people are… interested in what I have to say… So that was really cool. It kind of just came out of nowhere, like I wasn’t really expecting anything to come out of it. But it’s been…a super cool experience. […] And then yeah, my music Instagram kind of came… a few months into it. I think I just wanted… a place where I could talk more about it. And I think it was around the time where like, people were like, “Oh is TikTok going to be like taking down?…” And so I.. decided that like, the next step could be a music Instagram. And that’s been super nice. Because, like, I don’t know, I’d also been getting a lot of DMs from artists or people like you, who wanted to talk about music and stuff. So it’s nice to have a place on Instagram to do that.
I follow another music TikToker who has a Patreon, where you can pay to have her make a playlist for you. Would that be something you ever are interested in doing? Or has there been any other opportunities that have come from this that you haven’t expected? Or are you mainly just doing it for fun?
I guess the things that I’ve done that are more like, people ask me to do stuff… is more like promoting people’s music or… adding it to my playlist or talking about it on TikTok or Instagram or stuff like that. So yeah, that’s all been stuff I never expected… to come into. I’ve been approached by some record labels… who have asked to work with me. Like, that’s all been stuff I never expected. I never expected to be a part of the music industry in that way. It’s been a super cool experience.
So you go to college right, and what’s your major, is it related to the stuff you’re doing with music and TikTok?
I’m actually a chemical engineering major. So like, my major is completely outside of what I do with music and stuff. I guess music and making playlists, especially at first, was just kind of … a creative outlet. In high school, I did a lot more art along with the science and stuff. But in college, I hadn’t been able to do that as much. Making playlists is a way to like, have that creative outlet that I could do while still focusing on school and stuff. So it’s, yeah, it’s very much a separate part of what I’m studying. But now that I’ve gotten more into it, I have started to consider, like, career wise, this is something I could do. I have some opportunities within the music industry. Yeah, we’ll see.
Your Tik Tok blew up before your Spotify. Did you gain a lot of Spotify followers from this?
Yeah, I guess they kind of blew up around the same time. Like, from my TikTok people went straight to my Spotify because like that’s what it was all about.
Which of your own playlists do you like to listen to the most? I feel like a lot of what you do is you’re making things for like other people but what’s the one that you personally gravitate to more?
It really depends. I go through phases of liking different things. I have the main emoji ones (see below) which are ones I’ll normally turn on if I just, like, want something easy to listen to in the car or whatever. My playlist “song of the day” that’s not as much a curated playlist it’s more just the songs I really like at the moment. […] I really like to have ones that are for the specific moods I’m feeling.
Carly’s “emoji” playlists
Do you have any music like guilty pleasures?
I am a huge One Direction fan. Like, probably way too much. And it always makes me laugh because like, I … have like thousands of followers on Spotify who can see what I’m listening to… and I’m supposed to be like this cool indie music person. But I feel like half of the time I just shuffle One Direction.
How much time do you spend making TikToks and Spotify playlists?
It really depends. So normally, I just listen to music throughout the day. So, I’m constantly updating playlists, and listening to new stuff. So that’s the kind of stuff I do like, while I’m working at school or studying. And then I try to do TikTok stuff or Instagram stuff for about an hour. …Yeah, it really depends. On weekends I have more time to do stuff like that.
Your favorite band is Hippo Campus, what is your favorite song by them? I know there’s so many to choose from but are there any that stick out to you?
Yeah, the one I normally say is “Bambi.” I love that song a lot. The lyrics are just so good. And I have a lot of good memories associated with it. That’s probably my favorite. But I also like “Baseball” and “Golden” on occasion. Like sometimes I’ll say those but like, I feel like “Bambi” is the one that sticks with me the most.
I’ll be the first to admit it; I am not a big Jasiah listener. That being said, I love Denzel Curry and can get behind a lot of Rico Nasty’s discography, so when “Art of War” dropped on June 4th, I was intrigued. After listening many times and looking more into Jasiah’s other popular songs, I’ve formed my complete take on this track.
Simply put, everyone on this track goes in. “Art of War” is truly hard and the ZillaKami influence is clearly present. As a whole, the song brings a high power alarm-based beat with supporting instrumentals, many lyrics that pack a punch (or something a bit more serious), and the expected yelling from Jasiah.
Curry’s verse is perhaps my favorite on the track. From religious mythology to Dragon Ball, his references are bountiful. His signature fast-paced flow is clean and smooth and he was certainly the right choice for Verse One.
Rico Nasty plays a downright hater on her verse and she fully executes the role. She brings high energy, high vocals, and pure talent that really round out the song.
Jasiah is responsible for the intro with Curry, the pre-chorus, and the chorus. All three are enjoyable, though I do wish he’d had an additional verse to tack on after Curry and Rico’s verses. What is present on the song, however, is seamless and fun.
“Art of War” is a driving song, party track or generally hype play. Jasiah, Curry and Rico are a trio that fit well together and I look forward to the potential of hearing more from them. I’ll have to listen to more solo Jasiah, too.
Eurovision is an annual “American Idol” style song competition where each European country submits a song to fight for the yearly crown. It brought us Abba, an Israeli woman bucking like a chicken, a C-rate male Adele, and an endless supply of memes. There are 40 songs per year, which is far too many to cover in a single article, so I’ll hit the highlights for you here. These are my opinions, so check the songs out and come to your own conclusions.
The Good
Italy: This was the official winner. The rare rock victor, this band sounds like if Limp Biskit were a ’70s glam rock band, and also good. They have officially been cleared of drug use during the competition, which is kind of disappointing.
Ireland: This year’s Irish competitor suffered from a camera malfunction during the performance, which sucks considering that a queer woman representing Ireland of all countries is a milestone. I promise you she doesn’t sound like Sinead O’Conner
Malta: This is probably the most fun entry from this year. The artist, Destiny, has more energy in her than France, Switzerland, Spain, and Britain combined. The song feels like it could have used a second pass, but the singer more than makes up for it.
Latvia: This song is objectively awful, and I love it. It’s the kind of loud, incredibly weird, shameless pop music you expect from Eurovision.
The Bad
United Kingdom: Britain qualifies for the finals automatically because they’re one of the big five music markets in Europe. That is the only reason this song qualified. Props to the continent for giving this zero points, which is exactly what it deserved.
Switzerland: Falsetto singing is really hit or miss. A good singer can sound like an absolute train wreck if they don’t have enough breaths or hit the note a little off. On a related note, I really didn’t like Switzerland this year.
France: How did this get second place? It’s so boring I accidentally changed the song at the halfway point just to make it stop.
The Ugly
Germany: Ostensibly a song about trans acceptance, any positive messaging is overwritten by the painfully insincere lyrics and horrifying performance by Jake and Logan Paul’s long-lost younger brother. It’s really bad y’all.
San Marino: Sorry Europe, Flo Rida is your problem now.
Jesse Brotter, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Bri from Crumb had a conversation with DJ Psyched about Crumb’s second full-length record “Ice Melt.” The independent psychedelic rock band Crumb says this record is their “Come back down to Earth” as Bri says. They share how the record came together conceptually and how the current state of the pandemic shaped the recording process. Bri also shares their favorite moments on the record and some behind the scenes on how the it came together.
There is a near-infinite supply of buzzed-about electronic producers that haven’t released much music but are, according to at least someone you know, going to be the next big thing. These artists often release a couple of singles, maybe an EP, and then promptly fall off the map before releasing an album. This isn’t to say that the “reclusive electronic DJ,” archetype never pans out, just that you should approach the next two paragraphs with an abundance of caution because Koreless might never be heard from again after today.
Koreless is a British producer working in the vague spectrum of ambient, IDM, and experimental. He tends towards the more compositional end, composing music that is neither dance nor chill, which may or may not be your taste. He released an EP back in 2013, but his last publication of any kind was in 2015. However, he just dropped a new single adding up to around eleven minutes of new material.
Why am I talking about a random single from a producer with no album despite a ten-year career? Well, because the production is just that good and the sounds are fairly high budget. That leads me to believe maybe this will actually pan out into a full album since there appears to be some effort and at least a little money involved, but honestly the single stands on its own. Despite being entirely electronic, and fairly dense, both sides of the single have a clear sense of songwriting, you can follow a progression from beginning to end and the sounds are affecting without pandering to a given vibe or being overly moody. It’s great electronic music, so I guess I’ll throw the dice for a prediction: Koreless has a bright future ahead of him.
What’s up, everyone? This is T-Time, host of In the Garage– the show that brings you the best of garage rock, DIY, and emo! Back in March, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ben Walsh of Scranton’s own Tigers Jaw. At the time, they were amping up the release of their 6th studio album, “I Won’t Care How You Remember Me.”
So what was the direction for this upcoming album? I’ve listened to a couple of singles, and they seem a lot more synth-based…
Yeah. So for this, for this album, we really wanted to capture sort of like the live energy of when we play shows, which is kind of ironic, because there’s no live shows happening right now. But we really wanted to have sort of like a very punchy, sort of openly mixed album with not a whole lot of layering. So it’s pretty reminiscent of how many instruments are happening in a live setting for us. So we definitely experimented a lot with more, more keyboard tones on this record. Brianna was definitely, you know, in her creative element with that, so there’s definitely a couple different instrumental voices in there compared to some previous stuff.
Other than not being able to tour, how else has the pandemic affected recording and rehearsals?
So, we’re a little bit scattered, you know, our drummer lives in the Detroit area, and I live in the Philadelphia area, and then Colin and Brianna both live in northeastern PA. So sort of tighter restrictions about getting together and travel and everything. There’s only been a few, a few situations over the past year that we’ve even seen each other. So it definitely made it tough to get together. A few times we were able to get together and practice and do some music videos and things like that. But fortunately, this record was made prior to the pandemic.
I was wondering how you guys got all that done in such a weird time.
Yeah, we were getting the mixes of the record back, basically, in February 2020, when all the news was coming out, and everything was being pretty rapidly updated. We had the record almost ready to go. And then we were like, “Everything is different now. Like, we’re not going to be able to just put this record out, we will have to sort of rethink how we wanted to roll it out.” Yeah, so this has been a project a couple years in the making. It wasn’t intended to be that way. But it feels good to finally be able to release the record now.
Personally, I like it when artists take their time. I don’t care if it takes a year, I don’t care if it takes five years– if an album is good an album is good.
We try not to get any sort of schedule, like, “Okay, it’s been a couple of years, it’s been two years, we need to do a record.” We make music when we’re feeling inspired. So we’ve always kind of done things in a way that felt natural.
Who are your guys’ inspirations?
I think for me, personally, I was really just drawn to… I remember being a kid and hearing like Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty songs on the radio driving around in the car with my parents, and just hearing like, the simplicity of those songs, but they’re incredible. So, you know, being sort of inspired by that. That style of songwriting where it’s like, a good song is a good song–there’s something about it that you can just feel. And then you know, a few years down the line just getting more so into punk music and starting to play guitar, play drums, and things like that. It was just there was a really cool music and art scene in Scranton, where I grew up, and it was just like this really supportive and creative environment. So it was really inspiring to get involved. One of my older cousins played in a band, and I went to go see him and was just like, I fell in love with that sort of lifestyle, and it inspired me to want to play in a band.
So what about other Philadelphia or Pennsylvania artists? The ones that come to mind are mewithoutYou, Modern Baseball, etcetera. Have you guys had any interaction with them?
Yeah. So we’ve actually been able to go on tour with mewithoutYou and we played with Modern Baseball many years ago. But, we’ve gone on tour with Jake’s project Slaughter Beach, Dog, so it’s a really small world you know? And we’ve been around for a while, we’ve been lucky to meet a lot of really incredible musicians from not just PA but from all over. But there’s something happening in PA where there’s just a lot of really great talented artists.
What genre would you guys consider yourself? I know a lot of people say that you’re emo or pop-punk or folk-rock, but I want to know what the band thinks.
Yeah, it’s a tough question. Because, you know, whatever, how people classify things, I think, can be a good thing. But sometimes it can limit people, like if they feel like, “Oh, I don’t like such and such type of music,” but we’ve always just really considered ourselves a rock band. But we pull from a wide array of influence. Not every song is gonna sound like it belongs in the same category. But right now, we just make guitar rock music, I guess, in the simplest sense.
Yeah, I’ve listened to you guys’ discography, it’s a pretty diverse sound. You listen to your debut record, and then you go and listen to your most recent singles. There’s a lot of similarities, it’s the same band, but it’s definitely a different sound.
Yeah, there’s, there’s common threads that are kind of hard to really describe. But you more so feel them than anything else.
A lot of DJs at the radio station really want to know the answer to this question, it’s kind of dumb. But the self-titled Tigers Jaw album… the album cover… the pizza… was it good?
Oh, it was incredible. So the pizza on the cover is from a place in Scranton, Buona Pizza, and it was right in downtown Scranton. Anytime we would be practicing or playing a show or going to a show, that would be our hangout spot either before or after. So when we were walking around shooting pictures for the Run For Cover release of that record, we naturally just went there, because we always went there. And Brianna took that picture and we ended up rolling with that. A lot of people do ask about it, but it’s great pizza. Just classic greasy mall pizza. If you’re ever in Scranton, check it out.
Thank you so much for speaking with us today, Ben!
After much anticipation, Bonnaroo is back in business. After rescheduling from last year (I think there was some sort of pandemic or something), Great Stage Park in Manchester, Tennessee will be flooded with tens of thousands of fans from all over the world. And for good reason too. The lineup for 2021 is definitely going to be one for the books. The headliners for each day include Foo Fighters, Lizzo, and Tyler the Creator, who I would shovel out any amount of money to be able to see. Beyond the bigger names include a modge podge of artists ranging from folk to indie to rap, providing a unique taste for everyone there. Among these names, here are a few that I am especially excited to see.
Megan Thee Stallion I’ll be honest, at my first glance of the lineup for this year I was a bit surprised to see Megan on there. When I usually think of Bonnaroo, artists like Tash Sultana, Cage the Elephant, and Tyler Childers come to mind. But the more I think about it, the happier I am to have the chance to see her there. All of Megan’s music has such an upbeat flow to it and I’m sure it will be a tough challenge for any artist to get the crowd more hype than she does.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard This just seems like the kind of band that would be amazing live. With their eccentric guitar riffs and mellowed out lyrics, they make for a perfect midday vibe to bring the crowd together under the sun.
Caamp This band definitely holds a special place in my heart. I’m not a huge folk fan, but Caamp has a perfect balance of bluegrass with just a hint of modern rock sprinkled in. The main singer’s voice is raspy, but not too raspy, and their lyrics remind me of a life I used to dream of when a more adventurous writer occupied my mind when I was younger.
Tame Impala Have you guys heard of them? It’s super underground, super indie, you probably wouldn’t like it. All jokes aside, Tame Impala is known to be amazing live and I would love a chance to see Kevin Parker shred the guitar.
Resistance Revival Chorus This group has some of the most amazing harmonies to date. I’d say it’s a mixture of blues and folk. Their lyrics speak to a wide audience and they send a good message.
Remi Wolf The last one on this list goes out to Remi Wolf. Her music is a bit reminiscent of Still Woozy, with a funk bass to compliment her wide vocal range. Any song of hers could easily get the crowd dancing.
These artists are only a few on this incredible lineup. Words cannot describe how excited I am to be in the middle of a tightly packed crowd all there to get the same, beautiful experience of a music festival. Rain or shine, Bonnaroo 2021 is happening and you’re not going to want to miss it. -DJ Chippypants
So y’all know Weezer right? Radio rock band from the mid-90s, Buddy Holly, Say it Aint So, Island in the Sun? Well did you know that Weezer has been active and releasing music more or less continuously since then? They are releasing their fifteenth studio album “Van Weezer,” here in a couple of weeks, and their ride-or-die fanbase couldn’t be happier.
This thing really sucks! Thanks Weezer!
WZRFAN43
This doesn’t mean the fans are expecting a great new album. In fact, the fanbase is eagerly anticipating a train wreck of monstrous proportions. The Weezer fandom is perhaps one of the most masochistic groups of people I’ve ever seen, taking in each new horrifying set of lyrics, bland instrumental, and bonkers musical idea with awe. One of my longtime friends is a Weezer fan, and she has been forcibly subjecting me to these horrors for about the last 5 years, to the point that it’s become a recurring constant to follow along with every new album. Let me show you what I mean, here is a quotation from their magnum opus Smart Girls:
“Where did all these smart girls come from? I don’t think that I could choose just one. Where did all these smart girls come from? Someone tell me how to get me some. On the floor, in the car, on the seat at the bar, wherever I go, that’s where they are. SMAAARRT GIIIRRRLSSS.”
This song has been stuck in my head continuously since the 9th grade and I’m not sure if I can live like this any longer.
Even the good music Weezer released in their post-relevancy has been tinted with madness. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you which albums are actually good, because nobody agrees on which albums are good. If you liked Weezer in their heyday, I can almost guarantee that you will like something they’ve released in their weird stage, but I cannot tell you what. The line between good solid music and unquestionably horrifying catastrophe is surprisingly fine. I personally love 2008’s “Weezer (The Red Album)” my friend enjoys 2014’s “Everything Will Be Alright in the End.” And both of us agree that 2010’s “Hurley,” is the worst album in recorded history. Needless to say, I’ve listened to Hurley many times more than I’ve listened to anything good they ever released.
Anti-fandom is a strange beast. In the internet era, it’s difficult to unironically like something. Every corner of the internet is filled with hipsters singing the praises of The Room, Cats, The Shaggs, etc. But the Weezer fandom doesn’t actually remind me of those irony poisoned talking points. They remind me most of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Rocky Horror is, objectively speaking, a terrible movie. It’s poorly paced, the music is cheesy, the “point,” if it ever had one, is completely lost, is contains Meatloaf. However, the fandom around Rocky Horror does not love it ironically or poke fun at it because they think it is trash. No, no, while it may be trash, it is our trash, and there will be no bratty hipster “so bad it’s good,” in the Rocky Horror fandom. When Time Warp plays, you will pelvic thrust with force and gusto.
The Weezer fandom works in a similar way. Yes, this is terrible, but it’s only terrible because throughout all their albums there is sincerity and a genuine effort that has been lost by most 90s teenage rock stars. There’s something genuinely uncomfortable about Rivers Cuomo trying and failing to imitate Kesha. I mean, just compare Green Day’s latest, well, I guess you would technically call it a “song” Here Comes the Shock. The self-cannibalizing irony has seeped so deep into their music that it ceases to even be bad. It’s just, the absence of good. So, while I may think 75% of everything Weezer has ever made is absolute garbage, I respect that they have always made the garbage they wanted to make. Except for Pinkerton, screw that album.
