Six Songs I Can’t Stop Listening to Right Now
(And what happens in Vegas stays in this newsletter)
This is Downtown Las Vegas from 800 feet in the air. It is very brown.
So I went to Las Vegas. If you recently subscribed to this newsletter and were like “LOL does this thing even exist? Why doesn’t Megan ever update this shit?” Well, that’s why. Last week I went to Vegas and instead of doing any writing or work, I lost my money at the roulette table, ate a cake made to look like potted pansies, won my money back on a Goonies-themed slot machine, spun around in the air on a carnival ride that hung 800 feet over the Las Vegas Strip, went to the Mob Museum and saw a LOT of pictures of a LOT of dead bodies, rode a giant ferris wheel, drank a yard of non-alcoholic pink lemonade slush and walked so much that I wore a hole through both the thighs of my jeans and the bottom of my shoe.
I also watched a high-stakes poker game where a dude had literally one million dollars in chips sitting in front of him so I contemplated becoming a professional gambler, but after 45 seconds of online poker I realized that was not the life for me. Have you ever played online poker? It is VERY. OBNOXIOUS.
Let’s move on.
I’m back from the desert and ready to make your life better … or at least sound better. Here are six songs I can’t stop listening to right now. I’ve also compiled them into a Spotify playlist here, which I will add to every month. Neat!
1. Potty Mouth, “Bottom Feeder”
Snafu, the new full-length from Potty Mouth, is a stunner and a huge leap from the lo-fi, three-chord sound the band delivered on 2013’s Hell Bent. Snafu is a big, bursting power pop firecracker (LOL Fourth of July reference). There are fat guitar riffs and shamelessly melodic, harmonizing choruses — the band’s evolution reminds me of the shift we saw from The Donnas when they made the leap from Lookout! Records to Atlantic Records nearly 20 years ago. The band’s spirit is still there, but everything is pumped up and polished. It’s so fucking good. While it’s hard to choose a favorite song on Snafu, I keep going back to “Bottom Feeder,” the very angsty and Veruca Salty closer.
2. Solange, “Cranes in the Sky”
A few weeks ago I went to Bonnaroo and saw Solange perform for the first time — she was my favorite part of the day. (I also saw Cherry Glazerr, K.Flay, Courtney Barnett and 20 minutes of Childish Gambino from a half-mile away, so yeah, there was some competition). Solange hopped off the stage and sang “For Us By Us” with an especially enthusiastic fan in the crowd, she laughed while talking about how her “titties have been popping out” of her stage costume during recent performances — she was delightful. While her latest album When I Get Home is worthy of all the critical acclaim it’s been receiving, “Cranes In the Sky” from 2016’s A Seat at the Table is especially good at making all my muscles melt. It’s like a sonic epsom salt bath. Soak in it.
3. Charly Bliss, “Blown to Bits”
It took me a minute to get on board with Charly Bliss’ latest, Young Enough. Their 2017 debut, Guppy, is damn near perfect and Young Enough boasts a sheen that polishes some of the band’s compelling rough edges. But repeat listens have finally sucked me in — the album sounds especially good while driving around at night. The thing I love most about the opening track “Blown to Bits” is what happens around the 2:07 mark, when it starts to sound like a rock song being played in the middle of Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade.
4. Tierra Whack, “Pretty Ugly”
I’ve only published, what, seven newsletters thus far? Yet I’ve managed to praise Tierra Whack in two of them. Does that count as an obsession? Whatever. It’s not my fault she’s so great and “Pretty Ugly” shows you why in exactly 60 seconds. Her raps repeatedly slay whatever nonsense is trying to come at her, but she delivers each line with a calm, almost zen confidence. It’s eerie. And the chorus of the one minute song — a chirpy “Don’t worry about me, I’m doing I’m doing good, I’m doing great, all right” — will lodge itself into your brain for days
5. Cherry Glazerr, “Daddi”
“Daddi” is a creepy song. It opens with Cherry Glazerr singer Clementine Creevy asking in a haunted high pitch, “Where should I go daddy? What should I say? Where should I go? Is it OK with you? Who should I fuck daddy? Is it you?” Then the chorus explodes with pissed off guitars and Creevy shouting, “Don’t hold my hand! Don’t be my man!” It’s a clever, cathartic response to men who infantilize women (there are so many of them!) so I keep it on hand for those days when I need to scream about the patriarchy (there are so many of them!). Plus, whenever I see the name Cherry Glazerr, I can’t help but say it the way Nicki Minaj says “like a laserrrrr” three minutes into “Feeling Myself.” It is very fun. Try it.
6. “Mainstreet,” Bob Seger
HONESTLY, I AM AS SURPRISED AS YOU ARE. I never listened to Seeger much — my childhood memories were filled more with Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, The Mamas and The Papas, Tom Petty and, uh, Jimmy Buffet — but this song came up while working on a recent freelance assignment and THIS IS A VERY GOOD SONG! That weepy guitar? Woo, I had no idea! For 39 years I’ve been living like Bob Seger’s music just doesn’t exist! Weird!
Oh, and about that potted plant cake I ate in Vegas … it was DELICIOUS. The cake itself was dense and oh-so-rich, and it was perfectly balanced with layers of light, velvety chocolate mousse. LOOK AT THIS BEAST. It’s at Jardin in the Wynn if you ever find yourself hungry and in Vegas.