twitch chatter radstache, asking "is that a ps1 game?", when confronted with the existence of drakeo the ruler and his 2017 album cold devil

I haven't gushed about Velvet Negroni on here yet I guess. One of my favorite artists, especially relative to the acclaim that he gets overall? an absolute all-timer pop songwriter imo. I can feel the paint on the walls of the room this video was filmed in

to me, Track Star* is one of these kind of broad celebrity interview brands that are kind of interesting to me but that I am wary of, along with Hot Ones, Chicken Shop Date, The Terrell Show, Therapuss, Ziwe, Nardwuar, and apparently SubwayTakes now?

For me the central problem with Track Star* is that I am unable to watch it without trying to decide how much of it, for this particular guest, is a "work". I'm even pretty sure that no matter how much of a work the central trivia concept is, it probably is more of a work than that.

BUT DESPITE THAT I do find myself enjoying both of these fairly recent videos from this channel. Check these out, first the one with Spike Lee and A$AP Rocky, then the one from yesterday with Mark Ronson:

Like... pretty fun!

I remember having a complicated relationship with this song when it came out in (checks notes) 7th grade. It was a weirdly compelling banger to a random white kid in sort of the "strip mall belt" of the midwest? the costuming was not of interest to me, a kid terrified of a) sex and b) the occult, which is funny to say on the other side of the grimes experiment. I did like that there were stringed instruments (I was a self-identified Suzuki Kid, so violins felt like representation). unfortunately, thanks to my NPR-listening ass, I had the gall to suggest that the vocal melodies were derivative of Enya. but like, this moment exists:

I first learned of MJ Lenderman via people who were comparing him to Jason Molina but, while I do like much of the Lenderman stuff I have heard, I feel like this cover very efficiently demonstrates why I think that is not an apt comparison

like not technically but conceptually

I did think we were going to get a Robyn album this year, but at this point it seems unlikely?

I have discovered the kind of YouTube React video that I actually like and it's "random hip-hop fans discovering underground rappers I love". I actually found Black Hole Superette underwhelming within the Aesop Rock discography but videos like this make me appreciate it more!

I wrote, in "2025 wishes":

new Lorde album (but good this time)

#lorde #good ideas

almost!

commissioning a thinkpiece about how there's no "where are they now" for the guys who played the musical saw in the wonderwall music video unlike the nirvana baby or the blind melon bee girl and what that means about music criticism's obsession with youth