Let It Rip
A musical preview of artists who go big at In Between Days 2023.
Jammy, atmospheric meditation pop. A little after the four-minute mark, Lord Huron really takes us down the long dark tunnel before exploding into a final trope that will send a live crowd into singalong fits. Shades of War On Drugs. Feels like you could have discovered this song on a cassette fished from beneath your car seat in 1989. World music vibes fed through an analog rock wringer, pre-stressed to perfection.
Fantastic Cat
The New York outfit finds the sublime in the everyday. Like the way buttons on a blouse keep everything nice and snug. Listen to our highlighted track “Keep Me In Your Heart” and it will all make sense. Shades of Bob Dylan and that one camp counselor that knew how to play guitar. Regarding the latter, weren’t they a revelation? Could’ve been Adrianne Lenker or Django Reinhardt for all you knew. When you’re young, you’re impressionable. Pull up to the campfire and sing along with Fantastic Cat.
Miko Marks
All will be forgiven? Including our student loans? Oakland’s Miko Marks strikes a gospel aspect in a song with a song title that’s taken on a lot of different meanings. ‘Jubilee’? In the abstract it means something like a special anniversary of an event. The Brits celebrated the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, celebrating her accession to power. Another usage links ‘jubilee’ to the forgiveness of debts. That’s a modern and ancient usage, dating back to the Bible (Leviticus 25). Of course it’s about money, but the Bible being the Bible, there’s at least one more level of meaning connected to the forgiving of sins. For more on the intersection of debt and guilt, read Friedrich Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality.
Gypsy Moths
Rum Bar Records Strikes Again! The Gypsy Moths are the avatar of the moment for this label that knows exactly what province of recherche musical sentimentalism it wants to plant its flag in. Something like proto punk, the limbo between the big 70s arena rockers and VFW halls, when bands had absolutely no idea what they were *supposed* to sound like…and didn’t care! Our highlighted track “Tilt-A-Whirl” raises the question: do you capitalize the ‘a’ or do you not? Shades of Ramones pontificating on Rockaway Beach. Shades of Water Country.
A profound analysis of the top vinyl at In Between Days 2023.