Them Are Us Too’s Bandcamp bio reads “femme 4 femme, sad 2 sad”, a description that summarizes the dreampop band’s sound perfectly. Their first Dais Records album, Remain, came out on March 24th, 2015, and the cult of TAUT formed around them. With Kennedy Ashlyn’s soaring, Kate Bush-esque vocals and Cash Askew’s reverb-drenched shoegaze guitar, they gifted endless femme energy to the indie rock world. Their music feels like unfolding a note from a high school friend about her deepest, darkest secrets—each emotion blown to cinematic proportions, inviting the listener to feel in ways they may have forgotten how. Tragically, Cash Askew passed away in December 2016 in the Oakland…
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A Candid Conversation with Hilary Woods About the Journey to Colt
There’s something about Hilary Woods’ music that stops you in your tracks, as if you were walking outside a bar late at night and only heard the faintest noises of the velvet-voiced performer within. The music is darkly atmospheric and expertly barren—until, all of a sudden, it’s not. I first reached out to the Irish musician when Colt, her debut album released June 8th by Sacred Bones, only had a few songs available online. Once a member of the alt-rock band JJ72, Woods’ inimitable talent now flows into her solo work. There’s raw emotion pulsing beneath the surface of Colt, with each song churning ocean-like back onto itself until the 37-minute…
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Interview with sludgegaze band WIPEOUT’s Cassie Tucker
Wipeout – Optic Nerve (Official Video) from Cassie Tucker on Vimeo. Take a bag of glitter, your favorite sugary cereal, and cavernous pedals–crunch it by hand all together in a mixing bowl, and you have the Baltimore band Wipeout. The sludgegaze music of Cassie Tucker and Kayla Goldstein walks a line between hauntingly cinematic and playful glee. And with one single and an album out–the 2017 ripper titled Milkbird recorded by Alex Zhu–Wipeout shows no chance of stopping. I found the band through tattooist Tucker’s visual art on Instagram (@sllackula), which instantly drew me in: neon colors everywhere, psychedelic creatures and humans, and childhood nostalgia tinted with cheeky evil. I…
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Mommy Dearest: A Playlist about Motherhood
With Mother’s Day weighing heavily on my mind this year (what do you buy for someone that gave you the gift of life?), I pulled together this playlist of my favorite rock–or very close to–songs about motherhood. Either from the perspective of children or mothers, sorrowful or joyous, this playlist brought me a lot of comfort as I navigated what to do for the woman who gave me everything. 1. Tunic (Song For Karen) by Sonic Youth Penned as a retrospective ode to The Carpenter’s Karen Carpenter, the song doubles as a fiery anthem for daughter’s everywhere with the lyrics ‘Hey mom! Look I’m up here, I finally made it/I’m…
