Listen Up, Nerds 5: Mailbag 1/6/23
Skramzwatch 2023, Vibechecking Record Stores, Riding In A Submarine With No Tint
Thanks for reading the Listen Up, Nerds Newsletter. Today’s newsletter is a pretty self-explanatory one. I put the call out on the Substack App for questions to answer in this week’s newsletter because I was suspended from twitter for a week. I will always take questions at my email (listenupnerds@gmail.com) and I’ll answer it there or if it’s something we think everyone should see, I’ll kick it over here.
Before I get into the mailbag, I’d like to give a quick RIP to Gangsta Boo, who deserves more words than I could ever commit to paper. Her solo music was great but she played such an important role in Three 6 Mafia. Mystic Stylez doesn’t work without her. Boo’s verses are the bridge between Juicy J and DJ Paul’s earthbound raps and the Hell where Lord Infamous resides. She’s only 15 on this album and she’s rapping like she’s your worst friend at the sleepover begging you to play “Bloody Mary” in the bathroom and demanding to ask the spirits a question on the ouija board while the planchette moves on its own. I love this record to death and I love Gangsta Boo.
What are you listening to at this exact moment?
Great q, thanks for asking. At this exact moment, I am listening to HARD09, an electronic music 12” from Amor Satyr & Siu Mata. Friend of the Newsletter Jacqueline Codiga aka DJ Horse Jeans put me on to this and it’s been a cool listen. I posted on twitter that I think dub, the genre, will be “In” for 2023. B-side opening track “AHE” leans into full-on dub music and I love it. I am not too keen on genre names for this type of music but I got some education from the supporters on bandcamp. One guy says, “Heavy duty weapons, handle with care.” Some commenters call this “dubstep” in the orthodox tradition of the genre, another calls it “speed-dembow.” Several people use the description, “Deep,” for the music on here and it does sound like I’m at a rave in the Mariana Trench with James Cameron We’re dancing to the bleeps of the submarine’s instrument panel mixed with speakers rattling into exposed pipes and the bloops from giant squids every so often. I am keeping my eye on purchasing the 12” while the value of the pound sterling is still relatively low.
How is skramzwatch 2023 going?
Great q, thanks for asking. There’s a new Coma Regalia album! It was released on 12/30/22 and it’s pretty great. It’s reminiscent of ‘90s screamo like all of their stuff is. It’s a free download but throw them a few bucks since it’s Bandcamp Friday and all. I would like to spend a little more time with it record than I already have but would very much recommend it, if that’s any indication of how I feel.
In recent years, American post-hardcore has taken a turn towards a brighter and more professional sound in a way that I don’t love but a lot of people do, if the turnout at those kind of shows is to be trusted. The scene is getting older, members of bands are maturing, and maybe not mellowing but finding it beneficial to refine their sound in a way that isn’t in line with its youthful roots. Unable to shake how good a pair of Levis 510s feel, they mold their image and sound into something to be taken “seriously” by the other people at their advertising job. The music becomes less frantic and so does the artist himself. It’s hard-part haircut, beard oil, denim jacket music. I might refer to this as EDC-Core.
I tuned out of the skramz scene around 2017 for many reasons (didn’t care about the genre as much, my favorite bands changed their sound, I Hate Sex broke up, etc.) but would you be surprised to learn that Canada has been holding it down for the last decade? This is a great article from 2021 about exactly that. I took a pretty big dive into the Zegema Beach Records catalog after seeing their label sampler from 2022 on bandcamp. They have been releasing the same sort of music for over a decade and consistency is something to be applauded. Out of what I listened to, I would give a glowing recommendation to Hawak (Bay Area skramz/post-hardcore, their record from 2021 is produced by the god Jack Shirley), Eyelet (EVIL skramz from Baltimore), Lower Automation (ATDI-meets-Orchid-meets-Glassjaw [this is a compliment!]), and A Paramount, A Love Supreme (Delaware Skramz shit that sounds like the world is ending). I’ve linked the Zegema Beach Zampler #20 here so that you can do some deep diving yourself. Send recs my way or share ‘em with other folks in the Substack App’s Listen Up, Nerds chat room! A/S/L???????
Have you bought any music lately? What’s the vibe of music retail right now?
Great q, thanks for asking. I am always buying music and slowly but surely adding to my modest collection, which is pretty substantial by common standards but smaller than the people I’m most impressed by. Freud would have a field day with that sentence. Anyway, to get back to the question, I bought Compassion’s Pacing Animal 12” and Candy Apple’s World For Sale 7” while they were on sale from the folks over at Convulse Records. Convulse also sent me a preview of the new Nag record, Human Coward Coyote, and I’ll be talking about that, along with some other records, in next Friday’s newsletter.
I made a sizable discogs order from a seller who had a few records that I wanted, but the reason I made the order in the first place was to buy a copy of Sirens by Nicolas Jaar. It’s a great record that I have listened to dozens of times but the impulse to cop on wax was triggered by the packaging itself, designed with the ever-so-goated David Rudnick. The deluxe edition of Sirens comes in a white sleeve that can be scratched off with an included US Quarter to reveal the traditional album art below it. The packaging is a brilliant extension of the themes in the record it contains and also the themes in Jaar’s life. There’s a breakdown about it here. If you care about record packaging like I care about record packaging, it’s a great read. Anyway, the guy selling it said that the lottery paper on the front hadn’t been scratched at all so I bought it.
The paper might get scratched in transit but then that’s part of the story I’ll have with the record. Most of the records on discogs had several scratches noted on the listing or said they were in mint condition but were being sold for less than traditional market value. This caused me a little bit of unease as I thought they might be selling the regular edition under the listing for the deluxe edition. Dear Reader, I am nothing if not Deluxe. For $5 more, I’ll take the security of knowing I got the right thing.
The overall vibe of record retail is hard to pin down because I haven’t been in a store that isn’t Limited To One in the East Village in a while. I frequent LTO because it carries the kind of music I am most often shopping for and the prices are reasonable if not good. Sometimes I pay a couple of bucks over discogs price but I am supporting a small local business and not some guy named VinylJeff in Dubuque, IA who will hire a Colombian death squad to track you down because you rated your record as NM and not VG+. I visited Head Sounds in Ft. Greene recently because it shares the space with the barber shop I go to. Sometimes the records in there are priced outrageously (do not spend $40 on a weathered copy of The Royal Scam), but I did buy the Crazy Spirit LP in there somehow. It was marked as used but it was still in shrink wrap. That was cool.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week.