Wrapping up this summer, 2024 is proving to be a bit of a slow year for Orbiting Punk. Due to a full-time job and what I would consider to be a healthy relationship with time, I’ve chosen to spend much of this year with loved ones or on hobbies unrelated to music and writing.
I’m still doing photography with Antigravity (a New Orleans alt-mag) which gave me the honor of their centerfold this past month for a shot I took of Baton Rouge band Thou. I also took photos for local punks Atomic Broad and spent time messing around with nature photography.
I don’t want to do the typical blog thing of promising more in the future because honestly I haven't had the best record of that but I do miss all this work. Problem is that doing this newsletter is work (even if it might not seem like it lol).
I’m not one of those gluttons for capitalistic punishment who thinks 40-hours a week in a customer facing job is a joke. I also don’t think I’m any worse of a person for not giving all my unspent time to the promise of a “career” as a writer or whatever.
However, I’ve been writing about music in some way for nearly 10 years. Maybe it’s just vanity, but I need this work to express myself and to avoid bad habits. If this year has proven anything to me, it’s that I need more time and regiment to stay dedicated to it.
Not to (again) write the typical blog thing of “expect to hear more from me soon” just because I’m feeling slightly moved this week, but my new goal going forward is to find a way to make this whole thing feel more worth the time it costs me.
To achieve this, I want to experiment with deadlines and monetization to find that creative obsession again. Money always feels a bit dirty. I don’t want to gatekeep artists or exclude people. Every shit magazine or newspaper I’ve ever worked for that has put up a paywall in the end just hurt their readership and by extension the subjects they write about.
Orbiting Punk will be free until I’m sure I’m being accountable to you all but then I plan to start making archive pieces paid-only. After that I may mess around with the occasional paid-only posts and/or sections. I will definitely keep it as low as Substack will allow me and offer cheap alternatives via Patreon or direct payment for those who prefer.
I really appreciate all the folks who have read this thing (or threw money at me) going back to even the Perfect Sound Whatever days.
Aside from all that…
Touché Amoré (TA) are putting out a new LP in a couple weeks and I’m pretty excited. They’ve become one of my favorite bands over the last two years. So in this newsletter, I wrote about TA and shared some songs that have been in my rotation the past few months.
Filling The Void: Touché Amoré
I saw Touché Amoré (TA) for the first time in 2022, opening for The Menzingers at Tipitina’s in New Orleans. I didn’t know much about them at the time so when the lead vocalist, Jeremy Bolm, made a slightly uncomfortable level of direct eye contact with me it took me off guard.
Maybe I was just visibly feeling the music but he’s the kind of frontman who wants you to shout the lyrics back at him but I didn’t know the words. I felt a bit embarrassed during the whole interaction but he quickly realized I wasn't that kind of fan and then moved on to other folks at the front of the barricades.
If you know his lyrics and are singing them back at him, he will acknowledge you. Which I guess outside looking in, you could see that as an egotistical frontman expecting people to know his words. However, he doesn't seem performative in that way. He seems really wholesome like he wants you to spill your guts along with him.
After the set, my friend who also didn’t really know them well said they were like La Dispute if they ate more protein powder or something. I thought that was funny because they seemed macho in a Richard Simmons kind of way. Which is effectively saying, they are not at all “macho.” They just seemed like they were the kind of guys who could at most give me decent fitness and health advice.
After that show, I wanted to give that vein of post-hardcore another go (I had also just seen La Dispute live at Fest just a month prior). I made a facetiously named playlist for the time called “Working On Myself type beat” and really started digging into their debut full-length “...To the Beat of a Dead Horse.”
Immediately, the way Bolm wrote his lyrics stuck with me because he wrote like a poet. Not metaphorically but literally. Everyone knows lyricism and poetry go hand-in-hand but it’s honestly more rare to see someone who really has the poetic voice that bleeds through the words like a tone of voice.
He’s really effective at using different literary devices to illustrate his feelings or flipping idioms to mean something entirely new. Here are some of my favorite lyrical snippets:
“Liar lies in Los Angeles” - “Broken Records” from Dead Horse
“I am marching to the beat of a dead horse” - “Cadence” from Dead Horse
“I saw the glass as half full / So I felt I could ask for more” - “Rapture” from Stage Four
The whole final verse to “~” from Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me
The biggest drawback to the band is definitely their limited, albeit winning, formula of Bolm’s screaming vocals over jangly guitars and distorted bass. It’s a true recipe that has served the band well but I do think it kind of pushes folks from digging much deeper into the discography. If someone only gave them a passing chance, you could say it “all kind of sounds the same.”
I don’t want to discount the band’s musicality though. I personally hear a lot of distinctions between each album and they know how to experiment with song structure in interesting ways. They also subvert the genre pretty often.
The most obvious track that comes to mind is an old one, “Honest Sleep” for its jazzy breakdown that smoothly contrasts the overall ferocity of the song. So Bolm’s lyrics are usually the main attraction but the songwriting built around his verses make for their best work.
I’m sure most people reading this have opinions on TA already but if you may have thought they weren't for you, I’ve got a playlist here of some of my favorite tracks beyond some of their most popular that I think illustrate the point I’m making here. Maybe you might even check out the new record.
Sucky Summer Songs
Shuyler Jansen - “Totally Anonymous”
By far the most hipster, obscure bullshit on this list, this song captured me months for some weird reason. It’s by no means a bad song but it’s not a great song either. It’s a bit repetitive and cryptic but I love the chugging guitars, rustic vibe of the lyrics and the overall crescendo it builds up.
STEEF - “Roll with the Punches”
One of the best new punk bands to come out of New Orleans, this track is just a quick taste of what they’re cooking. If you like DEVO, B-52s or other weird post-punk type stuff, give this one a go.
Geordie Greep - “Holy Holy”
Black Midi guy is going solo. This is his teaser track for the upcoming project and it’s promising. A bit more theatrical than Black Midi which I’m sure some will hate. I’m usually not a fan of these vaguely musical type songs but I think Greep keeps it tongue-in-cheek enough to make it feel like a parody. It’s got a school-of-performing-arts level of instrumentation, production and musicality blending bits of soft rock, salsa and bossa nova to create a sophisticated air. Edgy guitarwork keeps the song from feeling overly stuffy musically while the story about a wanna-be womanizer and socialite adds to the overall critique of this upper-crust culture. It’s a fun time.
Faerybabyy - “orange soda”
A simple lo-fi pop track but I get lost in the dreamy atmosphere of it. Also sidenote, my dad would call Fanta’s orange-belly-washers so I like the tiny reminder of something sweet.
Fontaines D.C. - “Sundowner”
The new Fontaines D.C. is their biggest departure yet but it’s been a rewarding album. I think this is my favorite track because, like the aforementioned “orange soda,” it’s just really easy to get lost to. I guess I’ve been feeling a bit wistful lately with my listening habits.
PACKS - “HFCS”
A weird, little earworm.
Cloud Nothings - “I’m Not Part of Me”
Speaking of earworms, I’ve been listening to a ton of Cloud Nothings exploring their discography and this band knew how to write hooks back in their heyday.
All-Time Quarterback - “Underwater”
Super lo-fi, plucky ballad from a young Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie / The Postal Service).
High Vis - “Mind’s a Lie”
House EDM meets post-hardcore. This is the teaser for their forthcoming album and I’m curious to see where they are going with this new record. They recently did a cool feature with Kerrang! which has me excited to see how experimental this record will be. It’s always nice to see these “low culture” mashups of these traditionally working class music genres like punk, EDM and hip-hop.
Drug Church - “Myopic”
Another new teaser track, Drug Church’s vocalist Patrick Kindlon always knows how to slip a little profundity and cynicism into a song. This one explores grudges and always learning things the hard way.
illuminati hotties - “Didn’t”
I too often ask myself, “What if I just didn’t?”