Welcome back, friends! This week saw some of the same, and some new media being consumed.
Reading
Starting with 'some of the same', I am still reading Our Band Could Be Your Life - what can I say, I'm a slow reader. It was a bit of work for me to get through some of the middle of the book, bands like the Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth just don't hold my interest. Their stories are pretty crazy and/or entertaining, but without being overly excited for their music, it was a bit of work getting through those chapters. Bands like Dinosaur Jr and Fugazi, however, are a different story - I love those bands, and never grow tired of their stories.
Watching
Before I get into the 'something new' on this one, we wrapped something up. We finished Season 4 of 13 Reasons Why. I am assuming this is the end of the series, which is a good thing. There were times, this season, where it felt like the show had 'jumped the shark', or exhausted any believable ideas and started going with the insane. I will say though, that they reigned it in for the latter half of the season. I think they stuck the landing on this show, even if they held their finishing pose for far too long - did the finale really need to be an hour and 40 minutes? The end of the show made me want to go back to the beginning (we didn't) which is always a good sign.
On to the 'something new', since we finished what we were watching we had to find something else. With no other shows we are currently waiting on new seasons for, it was time to see what else was out there. It took all of a few seconds of the trailer for the Netflix show Away, for me to be convinced. We are about four episodes deep at this point, but with each episode I just want to keep watching. It's a show about a crew of astronauts making the first trip to Mars. It follows the crew, as well as their friends and family back on earth. I'm interested to see how long this show stretches out, and if they stick closer to 'reality' with the obstacles faced, or if it gets to be pretty crazy. We are nearly halfway through season 1 - in the show they say it is a 3 year mission, and at this point they're only a month in - so we will see where it goes.
If you want to keep up with what Aaron is watching, he says it's about the same as last week, so you can check out Whaddaweek #3 for that.
Listening
Alright, now for what everyone is here for - music.
As is often the case, for me, what I am reading dictates some of what I am listening to. Dinosaur Jr has always been a fascinating band to me, so I was beyond excited to read their chapter in Our Band Could Be Your Life. One of the loudest bands of their time, why not a live video?
Fugazi may just be one of the most powerful bands of all time. Not only does their music pack an incredible punch, but the lyrics do as well. This performance is iconic, to say the least, and it gets discussed in an upcoming episode of the podcast (go subscribe, if you haven't already). I never get tired of watching this video (poor sound quality and all).
How about some new music? The Casket Lottery are a band that's been around for a while, off and on. They recently announced a new record to be released later this year, and unveiled the video for their first single Born Lonely.
This week didn't hold much in regards to full albums being released, but one snuck up on me and blew me away. I have long said that David Bazan is one of, if not, my favourite songwriters. In fact, the album Phoenix from Pedro The Lion was one of my favourite records from last year. I think I had heard rumblings that we were going to get new music from Bazan this year, but it slipped my mind. Lo Tom isn't just a Bazan project, in fact it's a super group of sorts - featuring TW Walsh (also of Pedro The Lion), Trey Many (of Starflyer 59) and Jason Martin (also of Starflyer 59). Their release LP2 is an indie rock album full of big riffs with nods to classic rock acts for good measure. The song Outta Here in particular, is full of sky high guitars, and anxious vocals. I'm sure many could sing the chorus, and feel a direct connection to this weird world we currently live in.
Aaron sent a few of his picks this week as well. He recommends the Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional, Further Seems Forever) interview on the One Life One Chance Podcast hosted by Toby Morse of H2O.
As far as music goes:
That about wraps it up. Whaddaweek it was. Maybe we'll do this again, next week.
- David
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