2hollis is making a name for himself in the zone between cloud rap and hyperpop. Autotune and floaty flowy vocals on his earlier albums “THE JARL” and “FINALLY LOST” call to mind the same aesthetics as artists operating in the same space as Drain Gang.
The production on these projects is just varied enough to set it apart from the rest of the pack, with some witch house influences surfacing from time to time. On 2hollis’ newest album, he leans further into this noisy witch house sound, delivering something truly unique.
Right out of the gate, the track “gate” opens with heavy oscillating noise juxtaposed with high vocals. This sets the tone for the type of production littering this album.
The electronic backings swell and clip, flooding into the distorted vocals. A healthy dose of reverb gives most of the tracks an organic feeling of space. The result is a sound that feedbacks and folds back onto itself.
Over the past decade or so, several hip hop artists have used vocals primarily as a way of adding to the texture of the music rather than as a means of communicating information. There are several spots on “White Tiger” where this is the case. In the track “raise,” the vocals are completely buried under a pile of reverb, and yet, they still add to the track.
The production is absolutely the highlight of this album- a blend of trap, witch house, industrial, and hyperpop. At times this sounds ethereal, like on the wordy track “the light upon the surface that beckoned deep into the moment and the tiger stepped forth”, and at other times it sounds dark and looming like on “actor.” However, this album operates best when it achieves both, like on “king of the darkness.”
“White Tiger” can feel a bit repetitive at times, and if you’re looking for something really substantive, you might want to look elsewhere. Some lyrics drift into cliché, and when mixed with a thick coat of autotune, it sometimes results in discomfort.
Overall though, if you’re looking for something bigger and more grand than your average cloud rap offerings, or something several shades darker than your average hyperpop album, this is definitely something worth checking out. It’s a standout album in the field.
I give 2hollis’ “White Tiger” a strong ★★★☆☆. Good Album.
Thursday, Nov. 3 was a university-wide wellness day.
The wellness day has brought further attention to the importance of mental health resources and the overarching mental health crisis.
If you or someone you know is in mental distress, the university counseling center can be reached on campus at 2815 Cates Avenue, directly across from Witherspoon Student Center, or through their website.
The counseling center helped me find the support I needed in the beginning of my college career. College can be daunting and overwhelming at times– reaching out helps guide us to support needed. Support from peers. Support from parents or guardians. Support from professors and mentors. Support from the University. Support is vital to both our mental wellbeing and general success.
Above all, it is important to look after ourselves by doing the things we truly enjoy. Whether that be something as simple as getting a coffee or singing; doing the things that bring life meaning is simply refreshing.
I spent much of my wellness day listening to music.
As many, many individuals can relate, music has been such a source of support and love in my life.
To share some of this passion and wellbeing, I have selected a handful of songs that have brought me a lot of wellness. I hope you all enjoy, take care of yourselves.
It’s been three years since The Backseat Lovers freshman album, “When We Were Young”. In many ways, their first album was a compilation of songs rather than a complete, cohesive album. Each song was very good in its own right, but there wasn’t much flow between the tracks.
Their sophomore album released today after three years and three singles of waiting. “Waiting to Spill” is a complete project that flows consistently throughout, blending classic indie-rock with a variety of new sounds.
The quartet that makes up The Backseat Lovers includes Joshua Harmon on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Jonas Swanson on lead guitar and vocals, KJ Ward on bass guitar and Juice Welch on drums and backup vocals.
NC State students got the chance to see the Backseat Lovers live for free last year at Wolfstock 2022, which was an awesome experience. Even though they were playing for a crowd of a lot of people who didn’t know them, they put on an excellent performance.
A Bottle of Wine
“Waiting to Spill” centers itself around the challenges of facing time head-on and the desire to live in the past. I greatly appreciated that this theme is on display throughout the entirety of the ten-song record, shown in various lenses.
As The Backseat Lovers thematically focus on growing up and developing in their songs, their sound also develops into new grounds on this record. Staying rooted in indie-rock, The Backseat Lovers grows into areas such as country on “Snowbank Blues” or more piano-based songs on “Words I Used” and “Follow the Sound”.
Each member of The Backseat Lovers allow each other to shine in their performances. When one member pulls back, another one fills in the spotlight immediately. At moments where all four take the spotlight together, they create a truly incredible sound. The explosion of the soundscape at the end of the album in “Know Your Name” is extremely satisfying to listen to after 40 minutes of highs and lows.
I am somewhat split on the ending of this album. On one hand, I think “Know Your Name” would have been a very conclusive finisher that would have ended the album with a satisfying bang. On the other hand, “Viciously Lonely” ties the album together thematically in a very conclusive way.
While I probably won’t go back to the first or last track very much, I think they do help make the album feel more full and cohesive. It is a difficult task to find the perfect balance to create album cohesion and songs with a lot of replay value.
Conclusion
“Waiting to Spill” is an excellent record. While not as catchy as it’s predecessor, “Waiting to Spill” has a cohesion and depth that “When We Were Friends” never truly reached.
The Backseat Lovers has also grown in talent over these past three years, putting on an impressive display on all fronts. They incorporate a more complex vocal and instrumental performance to highlight the complexity they are attempting to reach.
The Backseat Lovers is currently touring across the United States and will start their European leg of the tour in 2023.
I greatly enjoyed this album and look forward to whatever work The Backseat Lovers ends up doing next.
This goes without saying, but there are an unfathomable amount of talent within the music industry.
These four bands in particular have brought me a newfound appreciation for the skill, creativity and diversity of women voices in the indie rock world.
Although this is just scratching the surface, these selections have been frequenting my queue time and time again. Ranging from punk, pop, emo and psychedelic, these bands exemplify some of the upcoming voices in the indie world. I hope you enjoy.
Warehouse
“super low” album cover art by Warehouse
Warehouse is an Atlanta based indie rock and punk band.
What sets this band apart of all others is the richness and power of Elaine Edenfield lead vocals. Stripped and rugged, her androgynist voice taps into grudge influences while holding an identity entirely of its own.
Warehouse notes Pylon, another phenomenal female led punk band from Georgia, as being one of their most prominent influences. Warehouse embodies the experimental essence of Pylon in a renewed timeliness.
With talented strings to match, this band hits hard. Below are some of my favorite tracks by Warehouse:
This pop rock quartet from Brighton is energetic, explorative and simply spectacular. Lime Garden is made of drummer Annabel Whittle, guitarist Leila Deeley, guitarist Chloe Howard and bassist Tippi Morgan.
These four ladies each bring a different musical background to the table, together forming a sound greater than its individual parts. This variety of musical background brought a lot of challenges for the band, but ultimately resulted in a richer, layered sound in their releases.
This band utilizes synthesizers beautifully, highlighting only the best parts of their sound without drowning out the pure instruments. Below are some of my favorites:
Sweet Pill is an alternative emo band from Philadelphia. Lead singer, Zayna Youssef has quickly become one of my favorite voices after their newest release, “Where the Heart Is” earlier this year.
Dynamic and powerful, Zayna provides a refreshing voice to the musical world. Listening to this band is simply stress relieving.
Lyrically they are aggressive and confident. Lyrics that are carried beautifully through Zayna’s vocals. She has so much emotion and strength within her voice– the classic angst of emo bands is replaced with unapologetically bold passion through her performance.
With strong bass and drums to match, Sweet Pill provides a striking performance for our listening pleasure:
This quartet from London provides a mix of psychedelic, pop and rock elements in their genre bending discography.
Members, Lottie Cream, L.E.D, Holly Hole and Rosy Bones, combine their passion for music and social activism to produce songs that highlight society flaws and shortcomings. In their 2021 album, “On All Fours”, is an exploration into some of these societial themes.
Goat Girl creates music that is both deeply meaningful and contagiously energetic.
In their earlier releases they have a more angsty and heavy lyricism and musical style that is matured in there newest album. This dichotomy is really refreshing in their overall discography. Here are some of my picks:
Show Description: Do you like rock and roll? Do you enjoy eating raw onions like apples? Would you vote for President Shrimpo for four nonconsecutive presidential terms? If you said yes to any of these questions you should listen to Fireside Chats with President Shrimpo! Fireside Chats is the preeminent place to find music on this hemisphere of the Earth, so listen or you’ll feel a great sense of emptiness in your life!
I know the music you grew up listening to is a big part of the music you gravitate towards… What other influences are present in your sets?
So much of my taste in music definitely comes from my parents, but I’ve been really fortunate to have a lot of friends who also loved music a lot. And so like, I have a friend who was like, super into Oingo Boingo and that got me into a new wave phase and that definitely has influenced me. I’m also watching video essays about music which has helped me broaden my horizons and pick out stuff that I don’t think I would have ever found just by, you know, listening to the music my parents do.
What is the story behind your DJ name and show name?
Okay, so there’s layers to the story. Over the pandemic, I really fixated on American, presidential, and political history. I liked the idea of theming myself around that. I also find silly little critters like shrimp and worms and stuff funny. There was a live stream series that this guy Zach Hadel did, called the very positive stream, where he would draw things and take suggestions. One of the things that he drew was the assassination of President Shrimpo Jones. And that was just such a silly thing to me that I sort of thought of that while I was coming up with my DJ name, so I pretty directly lifted that. And then Fireside Chats is a reference to FDR and his Fireside Chats because it was like, you know, that’s sort of like the most famous thing a president has ever done on the radio. And so I thought, I should have my own Fireside Chats.
What is your favorite aspect of being a DJ?
I love the sense of community that we have here that I like and like the friendships that I’ve built with other DJs. I love being around people who care about music in the same way that I do, even if it’s not the same music. That’s just something that’s very special to me. For example, young iowa has a metal show and I don’t personally like metal but I love hanging out with young iowa during his set, Feedback, just because he loves that kind of music in the same way that I love my own music. So that’s something that’s very special to me. I also love being able to share my music with complete strangers. I have a number of people who regularly call into my set. I don’t know them… I might know some of their names but they’re essentially strangers to me. But we are able to talk about something that we both really love and that’s very special to me.
Do you have a favorite phone call you’ve ever gotten?
Okay, so I have this guy who regularly calls into my set. Before I even knew his name, I always knew that it was him calling me because he would always tell me what he was doing while he was listening to my set. He would call in and say I’m doing the dishes or I’m out in my garage or whatever. Most recently, he called in and told me after we were done talking about the music, he said, I’m gonna go back to cooking my beans now, and I just thought that was a really funny moment.
How has your show evolved over time?
I would say, like, on a technical level, my show has changed because the first semester or so of me being a DJ I would always script everything I would say beforehand. I also didn’t have a good system of structuring how many songs I would put between air breaks. But I ended up doing a joint set with my friend young iowa and he does his shows very differently from how I did mine. He improvises everything he says and has a very strict pattern of blocks of three songs in between air breaks. I tried that and found that it really worked for me and I was able to have more structure to my sets and also gave me more room to improvise more and talk more naturally on air. I also changed the sort of music I play. Early on, I just wanted to exclusively play punk and post punk. But over time I have mellowed out and have been more receptive to playing more pop stuff. I think in the beginning I had some misconceptions about what was acceptable to play on college radio, and so I think my intentions of what I want to play changed over time.
Do you have any guilty pleasure music?
I definitely have some stuff that I would not play on air, but mostly because it’s, like, more popular. Like I love Nirvana and I really enjoy The Beatles and Arctic Monkeys. But like, none of that stuff would fit in with my show and I might also get some flack for playing that on a college radio station because those aren’t like… deep cuts. I also love really goofy old country music. I play some of that on air but that’s mostly self indulgence.
Any messages for the constituents of your nation?
My 2024 campaign trail is in full swing. I’m going to keep fighting hard to institute a shrimp backed currency. Additionally, in my second term I’m going to mandate free ponies for everybody. If I’m re-elected to a second term things are going to get way better.
