FAX MACHINE ANTHEMS
Hey, hi, go listen #1
MONTHLY MUSIC TIPS FOR YOU, BABY!
"Hey, hi, go listen" will be our monthly inspirational music-recommendation-moment-of-passion, where we treat you to some delightful tips. We, in this case, won't just be boring old Joep and Bas from Wilbur & Moore Records alone. We will bring reinforcements for this one. Each month we will invite some guest contributors to pick something they believe you should add to your daily rotation, spend your well-earned money on, or tell all your friends about.
Tips will come in all shapes and sizes, any genre, any release date, anything goes.
Read on for the first batch of tips.
sear | grief in v stages (2023)
Recommended by Christian Perez (Hark, Clot, Swim into the Sound)
From the opening moments of Grief in V Stages, it is apparent that it was written and performed with a deep sense of urgency. There is no escaping that feeling. The universal nature of experiences once deemed personal is becoming more apparent as more people are forced to confront the world around them. From political and social unrest to the ongoing pandemic, there is an endless stream of pain and unease that leaves us with plenty to grieve over. That grief can also create an urgency to fight, grow, share, relate, understand, isolate, and so on and forth. It’s a common thing that only recently has become more safe to discuss openly and while urgency in music/art can be hard to explain, it is incredibly easy to feel. South Carolina’s Sear capture the frantic and isolating nature of processing grief over the course five tracks on an EP ranging from contemplative screamo to harrowing blackened grind. It is at once miserable, pissed, and thoughtful. Who amongst us hasn’t gone through some sort of hardship and felt like a “parasite to peers and loved ones,” as expressed in the opening track? If you’re in place to confront the darkness that is permeating throughout life these days, Sear are going through it and they’re welcoming you to join them. They’re here to be a guide through the sharing of lived experience. There isn’t a clear path, but the only way out is through. With Grief in V Stages, Sear show that you’re not going through it alone.
TOWNSEL TURNER | felt like eternity (2022)
Recommended by Josaleigh Pollett
In the summer of the year of our lorde 2022, I was listening to a lot of new music like I always do. I’m not sure how Townsel Turner’s album “Felt Like Eternity” landed on my ears right when I needed it, but in the first ten seconds of the first track “Atomic” – I knew this album would be important to me. It drones and sways and feels like sitting on your porch after someone important to you leaves town. It feels like accepting your own sadness as part of something bigger and more beautiful.
Dylan Combs' voice feels so familiar to my brand of dealing with shit. "If you need me I'll be hanging with better times." I’m not sure if it was luck or grace or something less divine, but I became obsessed with this album during my first bout with Covid. July of 2022 was quite literally a fever dream – grappling with solitude and sickness and depression in a new and visceral way. The lyrics to the song “Mirror Days” served as a lifeline to me – “The world at large is stranger now – to hear your voice, I won’t turn down.” Play it on repeat. Check my temperature. Listen again. Check my pulse. Press play again. To know I don’t know anything but existing at the same time as when these drums come in at one minute and twenty one seconds is fucking epic, and I think I’ll stick around. "It all works out/It all works out/It all works out/It all works out."
Nick webber | all the nothing i know (2023)
Recommended by Arthur (phoneswithchords)
Nick Webber’s debut album All the Nothing I Know is a true gem worthy of a wide audience. Nick’s songs feel so familiar and yet there are so many surprises around every corner. This is an album that tells a story of grief and sorrow and faith. All and all this record is just plain beautiful.
wished bone & spencer radcliffE | a bug crawled in the piano (2020)
Recommended by Bas (Wilbur & Moore Records)
"A bug crawled in your piano. A bug crawled in the piano. Hey you know what, Charlie, a bug crawled in the piano. Yeah... It's so tiny."
With those words, spoken by a child, starts the third track of this EP, a million bucks. When I first played this song, my (at the time) 9 year old daughter dropped whatever she was doing, looked at me, said nothing, but produced a massive smile on her face. This of course is one of the clearest signs that you're listening to something special. A Bug Crawled in the Piano is a 6-track, 20-minute EP by Athens (OH) artist Ashley Rhodus, aka Wished Bone.
I only stumbled upon this self-released album a couple of years after it came out, but had it on high rotation for weeks. The charming lo-fi songs all sound small, personal and intimate, without losing the ability to keep you engaged.
It's releases like this one that have to live with the risk of passing by unnoticed, so hopefully this call-out will attract a handful of new listeners who are as delighted by it as I was the first time I heard it, and attract some more smiles as wide as my daughter's.
TEENAGE TOM PETTIES | POSTERS/MY FIRST BEER (2023)
Recommended by Joep (Wilbur & Moore Records, WE ARE JOINERS)
As if Doug Martsch would have The Lemonheads as a backing band. That's how I view this single. In my humble opinion, Tom is one of the most impressive indie-rockers working today! This is exactly how I like my indie rock: fuzzed out with the jangly guitars and the high-pitched male vocals that my 90s-self adores. Out on the fantastic labels Safe Suburban Home and Repeating Cloud. Make sure to check their catalogues for more grandiose indie rock.
