Like we never left, y’all.

There’s a bunch of non-bloggy writing I’m working on at the moment, so I didn’t get to write up a ton, but I did want to spotlight some music that’s near and dear, in addition to sharing a longer list of stuff I have my eye on today.

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Lean Year — Sides

Happy release day to one of the most moving albums you’ll hear all year. I had an opportunity to speak with the folks from Lean Year for Style Weekly, and I walked away with so much respect for their poise, their artistry, and the way their music looks unflinchingly at the big, deep, difficult stuff in life, particularly pain and loss. Here’s a passage of that conversation that has stuck with me:

“There’s so much content that is so complete and compact and digestible and it isn’t messy,” Alverson says. “There’s a trend toward that clarity. Everything is ‘What’s the story? What’s the narrative?’ It needs to be able to be bought and sold and compact and moved, and it’s really unlike living. That’s a shame.”

“We’re both atheists,” Rex says, “and we talk a lot about the power of music bridging that space between the body and the mind, and taking you outside of your head, and tapping into this very secular spiritual space. I do feel like it is the perfect state to process those liminal emotions, where you’re seeing someone make that transition from living in the world that we live in, to not, and not knowing where they’re going.”

Click here to read the rest of the article, and I highly recommend setting aside time — on a long walk, or in the car on a quiet drive — to get to know Sides. You’ll be glad it’s part of your life.

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Piranha Rama — “Placate“

Piranha Rama’s new album , Omniscient Cloud Cover, is out in late September, and while the preorder isn’t up yet — vinyl coming via Brokers Tip Records, the label run by Bob Nastanovich of Pavement! — the first single, “Placate” is indeed Bandcampable. Omniscient Cloud Cover is dynamite from start to finish — half psych-pop escape, half determined walk through difficult times. Two of the band’s founders, John Sizemore and Chrissie Lozano, were kind enough to chat about how the album came together — one step at a time — and you can read all about it in my Style Weekly piece, which went live this week.

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Other fun stuff I have my eye on, updated throughout the day:

ScottClark4tet — A & B
Dori Freeman — Songbook Vol. 1
DJ Mentos — The Maxell Tapes Volume 3
Dogwood Tales — S/T
Horse Lords — Comradely Objects
Ohbliv — Raw Power Vibrations Extended Play
Mali Obomsawin — Sweet Tooth