It was just a Sunday night.

An artist you NEED to hear

A few weeks ago I went to see Good Sleepy, a band I’ve been telling you to listen to for awhile now. (Their everysinglelittlebit was one of the best records of 2021.) They were great. So was Common Sage, another Crit List band, whose record has huge TDAGARIM vibes. But what we need to talk about has nothing to do with either of them.

Closing the show was Matilde Heckler.

You need to know about Matilde Heckler. I don’t remember the last time a new artist impressed me as much as she did.It really felt like something special was happening right in front of my eyes.Her electric violin! Her raw energy! Her stage presence! Her guitar player!She only has one song on Bandcamp/Spotify.She’s about to drop her pièce de résistance May 6, and you need to hear it.It’s called “Emo Needs More Fucking Girls” and you can pre-save it here.She’s right. Emo does need more fucking girls.And I think we all need more fucking Matilde Heckler.

Oh yeah, here’s a playlist 

A few weeks ago, I was having a quiet night on the couch. Stephanie was at my feet, reading a book. Powered by iced tea and an edible, I was DJing my own little couch emo night and singing to myself. A few songs in, I decided to make a playlist out of the somewhat-random tunes I was playing. It’s mostly deep cuts and old personal favorites, songs I felt like singing, and at some point I realized maybe it was worth sharing. At first I thought it wasn’t, because most Crit Lists have been new songs. But then I realized it’s my damn newsletter and the lists can be anything I want them to be!!! (The next one will be jams from 2022 though; it’s already in progress.) So here ya go: 43 songs to put on shuffle and enjoy.

It left a DENT on me

Signals Midwest is a top tier band, period. Their new record DENT is incredible, just like everything they do. It’ll be tough to top for AOTY.

Did everyone watch Severance?

Holy shit. Watch Severance! My favorite show in years. Everything about it is incredible. Don’t read anything about it, just go watch it. When you’re done, let’s talk about wtf is going on down there.