I heard a rumor, it's all true

Hello. I have been very busy. I am a stay-at-home dad this summer and it’s exhausting but so full of joy and wonder and silliness and “oh no don’t touch that.” The thing about chasing a 13-month-old around all day is that for most of the day I either don’t know which room I left my phone in or I’m actively hiding it from her because if she sees it, she wants it and most of the crying she does is “I want the phone or the AppleTV remote!” Not being on my phone much is awesome actually.

Here are a few things and some great songs.

How old am I? I’m “they have to ask me two new questions before I can see the doctor: 1. Have you fallen in the past year? 2. Are you afraid you might fall due to balance issues?” years old. Sooo that’s cool!

I like writing. However, I am thinking of pivoting to video. It sounds as inviting as walking into the ocean and never looking back but I realize that no one reads anything anymore. I sort of mean that in a local way but also more globally as in McLuhan’s “post-literate” kind of way. I also understand that asking someone to listen to something new is a big ask so I’m not offended when only a couple people even click the playlist on these things. But if the people are spending their time scrolling through reels, maybe I need to be where the people are.

My friend Lizzie from Teens in Trouble was interviewed by her local NPR station! How cool. Check it out:

Okay here are the songs you’re all waiting for!!! Here’s the playlist on Apple Music.

Perennial - “Modernism”

The coolest band in the world continues to get cooler. There’s no one like them. The live show is explosive and joyful. If they play near you, you have to go. If you don’t have a good time, email me and I’ll pay for your ticket. I am completely serious. In the mean time, pre-order this record.

Big Girl - “Side Effects”

I’ve mentioned them before, and I think Big Girl is one of the most badass and exciting bands out there right now. I can’t wait to hear what they cooked up in the studio last month with Sarah Tudzin (Illuminati Hotties) producing.

Jawdropped - “Split Lip”

I feel like it’s been awhile since there’s been a good song about signing yourself away to a major. This one delivers. This band rules. Ever since I first heard their song “Star” I have loved them and I can’t wait to hear what their debut record sounds like.

“Lay your cards on the table
Sign your soul to a major label
It doesn’t always work out”

Queen of Jeans - “Still Learning”

Sadurn - “whole thing”

What a voice. 2022’s Radiator was excellent and now Run For Cover is putting out their new one. Hell yeah.

Josaleigh Pollett & Crowd Shy - “Bed of Quiet”

If I Let it Quiet is out now and you should listen. I’m lucky enough that I’ve been listening for the last couple months and it’s excellent. Like the last JP record, which is a perfect masterpiece, it has created its own little sonic universe. It is a warm, cozy, open world waking dream, waiting for you to take the plunge and let go.

Fiddlehead - “Baby I’ll Change”

This EP is so good and the way this song builds and builds and then just soars…yeah. The way it captures the struggle of addiction is just brilliant.

I love that the vinyl pressing colors are named after T stops:

700 Forest Hills Orange (Run For Cover Exclusive)
700 Kenmore Green (Fiddlehead Exclusive)
2500 Alewife Red & White (First Run Club Indie Retail)
2000 Wonderland Blue
100 North Station Purple (Friends & Family Exclusive)

Slow Pulp - “Better Man”

Mallcops - “35mm Memories”

Jess Williamson - “Goodbye to All That”

Something about Jess Williamson’s music makes me want to buy cowboy boots, move to Texas, live on a ranch, maybe buy a horse? Okay that’s probably too far. But she’s great. I loved 2023s Time Ain’t Accidental very much and this first single from her upcoming record sounds great.

The Carolyn - “life’s short. stunt it. (jfc)”

Squirrel Flower - “Reelin”

Bashful - “Breaking In”

We all need some snotty punk in our lives sometimes.

Mother’s Day Rogers - “Baltimore”

This song has a catchy-as-hell chorus and an amazing first line:

“I don’t want to talk politics with the contestants of the suck-your-own-dick championship.”

Rest in peace Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of Texas. Rest in peace Joan Sebastian Guerrero of Maine, murdered in front of his daughter in her Bluey pajamas. The human garbage who killed Mr. Guerrero was David Michael Brouillette, who called his ex-wife after the shooting “asking me to lie for him and to cover for his character.” She reported he has a history of abusive behavior towards her and their daughter. A second ex-wife also recounted a history of violent, abusive behavior. “If you were to ask me whether I believe David Brouillette is capable of this level of extreme violence, my answer is unequivocally yes,” she wrote. I wrote about ICE training before and it’s more a lack of training, and the more psychotic these guys are, the better suited they are to carry out these horrific crimes. This was a guy who needed psychiatric help, not a gun and a license to kill.

Abolish and prosecute every member of ICE. They are a well-funded militia serving at the will of the President. They are death squads. They are a gang of serial killers and they will not stop murdering anyone in their way for whatever reason with absolutely no accountability. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are about to be targeted. The other day they said they’d cut the vehicle stops (genuinely a good idea) but Trump came out and said no way, because he wants this campaign of terror and death and destruction. This is a targeted campaign. These are death squads. Think about this: if there was a string of murders attributed to any other group in this country, it would be an enormous story, people would be hiding inside until they were caught. Well, “the FBI is not only not investigating ICE, it’s actively investigating the people ICE shot.” We should not have to live like this.

Imagine someone running for office, giving a speech in front of a giant banner that just said CONSEQUENCES or ACCOUNTABILITY. That’s where it has to start. We have to take their money and send them away for good. Their corruption and cruelty cannot be allowed to win or that’s it, it’s all over. Does anyone have the imagination and the spine to do it? Hello???

When you log into Twitter you should get a pop up that tells you how many people Elon Musk has killed. You should have to click a button that says “this psychopath posted gleefully about feeding USAID into the woodchipper and hundreds of thousands died, you still want to use this website?” Then you click YES and it says REALLY? and you can click YES again if you really want in. If you click NO at any point the window closes. Maybe something similar for Spotify about AI, fake artists, pay for play, or Daniel Ek’s investments. No ethical consumption, etc, I know. But the more you can speaking with your wallet truly matters.

I hope you don’t get the explosive diarrhea. I mean, I always hoped that, but now it’s going around so I really hope so. Here’s what to know. Monitoring for that kind of stuff is just sooo lame, said the CDC last summer, so here are. Another big W for Republican governance. It’s likely going to get worse. Taylor Farms is a Trump / Republican donor and cannot be trusted ever again. This article shows they slow-walked their response, delayed the recall which led to consumer confusion, and teamed up with the White House to blame Taco Bell. Just more corruption from the king of it. Taco Bell did all the right things here.

We’ve now spent $2.5 billion to NOT create wind power, and create natural gas-fired power plants instead. A few people are making a killing to destroy the planet and the rest of us suffer. Things are so bad that a renewables developer asked Trump if they can swap an unpermitted solar farm in Nevada for a data center and a gas power plant instead. Everything is so stupid and backwards.

A few more good pieces I’ve read recently:

• If you don't hate data centers yet, boy do I have news for you

• The plot to subvert the midterms is getting stranger and more dangerous

• Unpacking Myths About Noncitizen Voting — How Heritage Foundation’s Own Data Proves It’s Not a Problem

• Ex-SAPD officer fired for giving feces sandwich to homeless man promoted to South Texas police chief

• After Pushing Anti-Trans Laws to ‘Protect Women’s Sports’, Project 2025’s Heritage Foundation Now Wants Women’s Sports Gone to ‘Assist Fertility’

• ICE agents don’t just kill. They kill with impunity.

• A Whole Bunch of People’s Claude Chats Are Publicly Accessible Online, and There’s Some Wildly Private Stuff in There; Anthropic said the system is working as intended

• Sex work or starve: Aid workers in Nepal left jobless by USAID cuts turn to sex work to survive

• The Real Reason Elon Musk Keeps Insisting DOGE Cuts Killed “Zero” Kids

RIP Ekko Astral. You can read about it in Rolling Stone. They burned bright, even if not for long. I wrote this about their record and hope it will still hold true: “This record is a special, seismic event… May the aftershocks reverberate for years.” Pink balloons go pop.

Just eat the world already, Jimmy. I saw Jimmy play Bleed American in full a few weeks ago and it was great. They opened with four Clarity songs and the crowd was 97% dead. The transition from “Lucky Denver Mint” into “Bleed American” was awesome, including a stage change, and the crowd came alive. For five songs, anyway. After “Sweetness” they died back down until “Pain” in the encore. Speaking of the encore, I was thrilled to hear “Disintegration” and “(Splash) Turn Twist” and of course “23” to end the evening. It was a bummer that the crowd really only got up for half the record but shoutout to Jimmy for writing three truly killer records and now I’ve seen all three live. I saw them play Clarity at House of Blues Boston in 2009, saw Futures at Lupo’s Providence in 2014, and now this. One of the best bands of our generation and they still sound great live. Not sure how Jim also still looks the same, but good for you buddy.

Speaking of Jimmy, I’ve been enjoying their series of Bleed American track breakdowns with producer Mark Trombino on their YouTube channel. I learned that “Sweetness” was almost on Clarity. I’m glad it wasn’t. I think it ended up right where it should be.

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

This looks awesome. I looove the book. William Gibson says he approves of it, that’s enough for me. Apple TV has become the place for sci-fi.

Red Sox Minute! The Red Sox are good again? Yes. Life is just so much better when your baseball team is good. The joy tastes sweet. Someone please fix Roman Anthony’s hand. Please. Here’s a nugget from the note in my phone where I write random stuff:

Steph (chilling in the pool): this is how the 4th of July should be spent!
Me (sitting in the shade by the pool looking up Caleb Durbin’s stats before and after he got a new hitting coach): sitting in the shade by the pool looking up Caleb Durbin’s stats before and after he got a new hitting coach?
Steph (sick of my shit): yeah, sure, that.

I just looked it up again and he has almost the exact same number of plate appearances before and after, here it is updated through July 21. His turnaround is incredible. Just mind boggling and even crazier because he has almost the exact same numbers this season as Alex Bregman. Probably unsustainable but 75% of this peak with a plus glove at third will do just fine thank you.

Notes about before (among players with 160+ PA):
His OBP and OPS was the lowest of any player with 160+ PA. Only Cal Raleigh(!) had a lower average, by 2 points. His only homer was off a position player.

Notes about after (among players with 160+ PA):
MLB ranks: SLG, 12th. OPS, 17th. wOBA, 19th. He’s one of just 22 guys hitting over .300. Ground ball rate came way down and his average on balls in play went way up.

The Early/Mead trade: I’m into it. If Mead can be league average at second and he really has figured it out at the plate this season, it’s a good deal. Early is a mid-rotation starter I think, Mead pulls the ball in the air and should crush homers over the Monster. Lots of people talk about how he crushes lefties but his numbers against righties aren’t far behind. Even if he ends up at DH, that’s not too bad. He’s already the second best hitter on the team.

I made some images that I never posted so here they are!!!

My favorites from last year, please listen to all of them.

Listen to Scarlet Street.

Listen to Pretty Bitter.

Listen to Kerosene Heights.

Listen to Dead Billionaires.

One more quick thing. I feel this post very deeply. Imagine a world where politicians just did good, positive things for their constituents. Watch this clip. New York City has a good one. They hate him because they’re afraid he’ll be good and the goodness will be noticed and spread. That world is possible.

Okay that’s enough for now. I love you. It sure is a nice day to order a shirt or a record from a band you love, don’t you think? Maybe just a post telling the world to listen to them and why you love them would suffice.