Nightswimming #9: 08/08/24-08/15/24

King Gizzard! John Early! An interview! And MORE!

Aug 15, 2024

Highly Recommend! (best of the week)

Abandon - COOL HEAT (Spirit Goth Records)

COOL HEAT is the solo project of Chicago musician and photographer Eden Sierotnik. His profile calls the music a “blend of post-rock and dream pop with an emphasis on hazy soundscapes and shimmering guitars”, but it goes beyond labels to serve as a document of time and place. Abandon is COOL HEAT’s 2^nd album, and latest since his solo debut in 2019 after his work with experimental indie rock band Color Card. Where Color Card leaned in to spacey, almost droney, dreampop explorations, COOL HEAT brings a groove and a pep to that same sound’s step. Abandon braids together rich, synthy 80’s New Wave sounds with an upbeat jangle pop thread, reminiscent of R.E.M. and 10,000 Maniacs (on tracks like Change and Other Side).

It’s dreamy. It’s spacey. But it has somewhere to be.

In that way, Abandon is a perfect love letter to the city of Chicago. Some refer to Chicago as “The New York of the Midwest” and I guess that’s true if you absolutely have to compare it to something.

But I think the description is apt because, while the rich tapestry of diverse vibes in Chicago make it a dreamy and cinematic place to be, it stays moving ahead of the ball in a way other Midwestern cities don’t.

I don’t mean to make this about Chicago, only to say that you can hear this in Abandon. There’s a melancholy mixed with an urgency. You see it in Sierotnik’s photography—which I also highly, highly recommend at his website or on Instagram. Gorgeous compositions of Chicagoans who share that Midwestern warmth and gentleness, but are ultimately always just about to miss the train. There’s a camaraderie in the suffering of a snowy Chicago Winter.

Eden Sierotnik was kind enough to dive into the Nightswimming pool with me and talk about how Chicago DIY and photography have influenced his music:

Doyle: I feel you can always hear Chicago in the music. How does Chicago and being a Chicagoan inform your sound?
Eden Sierotnik: I just love the scene here, it's really underrated. Being around so many cool bands is inspiring, it motivates me. It's a place I love deeply and has been instrumental in developing my sound.
D: What role does your photography play in your creative process for making music, or vice versa?
ES: I think that I approach the process with the same mindset. Whether I have an idea for a demo or frame I see in my head, it's all based on the mood I'm trying to create in that moment. I've always felt like my photos and music went hand in hand, so I tend to use a lot of it for artwork.
D: What have you learned or gained from being part of the DIY art scene?
ES: Pretty much everything I know. Aside from meeting other like-minded musicians in the same boat; for me it's been about finding a sustainable way to do it so that you won't burn out or get too discouraged. Being DIY has helped me try to figure that out.
D: Nightswimming is all about recommending music, so who are some of your musical influences?
ES: Interpol, Soft Kill and DIIV to name a few. I've been listening to a lot of BRANDENDBURG and Human Tetris. Also Mount Kimbie's latest album is fantastic.

Highlights: Change, Underflow, Tears in the Dark

Flight b741 - King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (Pdoom)

In the Midwest, we have a saying: if you don’t like the current weather, just wait 2 hours. Rest assured, it will change.

Similarly, if you don’t like King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s current album, just wait 6 months for the next one. KGLW, or King Gizz, has released 26 studio albums since 2012, and none of them really sound totally like each other. Butterfly 3000 is straight psych rock. Eyes Like The Sky is a Western. Infest the Rats Nest is a heavy metal album. And the other 23 are some blend of psych rock, prog, blues, pop, folk, doom metal, sludge, and honestly whatever sub-genre you can come up with. King Gizz’s lyrical themes range from high fantasy to sci-fi to religious references to climate change activism—all delivered with that signature Australian “wink wink, nudge nudge” brand of humor.

Flight b741 is no exception to the eclectic rule. It is squarely a Southern Rock, swampy, fuzzed-out blues rock record. It’s where Canned Heat meets ZZ Top. It’s Molly Hatchet’s guitars on top of the Black Crowes’ melodies. The gang vocals on Flight b741 lend to the loose party vibe of the record, but also contribute to the sonic tightness that is quintessential to a KGLW project. The band leaned in to the lyrical themes consistent with good ol’ Southern rock music, too. Where Gizz fans are used to brooding themes about political turmoil and environmental catastrophe, Flight b741 is more about having a kickass good time—so much so that it borders on parody. And maybe that’s the point.

This record is a strong homage to a genre, even if it doesn’t particularly break any new ground for the band. But that’s okay, they’ll release something else tomorrow anyway!

Highlights: Hog Calling Contest, Sad Pilot, Antarctica

Worth a Listen! (good to very good)

This Is How Tomorrow Moves - beabadoobee (Dirty Hit)

The race is far from over, but Beatrice Laus, a.k.a. beabadoobee, may end up crowned Gen-Z’s patron Saint. Born right at the turn of the century, Laus has proven to be of the age that views 90’s music not through a nostalgic lens, but as someone walking through a museum. Like her contemporaries, Laus has taken up the mantle of female singer-songwriters, and has leaned into that 90’s global village coffeehouse Alanis-meets-Liz Phair sound.

On her 3^rd album This Is How Tomorrow Moves, Laus has grown past EP’s and TikTok audios. She’s now played Coachella and opened for Taylor Swifts Eras Tour 12 times in Europe. It’s Big Girl Time, and she shows it on this album.

London-based Filipino-born Laus recorded This Is How Tomorrow Moves in Malibu at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios, with the Great Guru himself in the role of Producer. Much has been made recently about Rubin’s true value, and whether he knows anything at all. But that’s not a conversation for this piece.

Whoever it was, Rubin or Laus herself, that pushed the beabadoobee sound further into this 90’s alt-rock vibe absolutely nailed it. Sonically, Laus channels Fiona Apple while also staying true to her Gen-Z roots. Laus’s voice shines, but the instrumentals are also solid with a host of session musicians and Jacob Bugden at the arranging helm.

Lyrically, the themes are her most mature and come in the wake of what Laus described to Apple’s Zane Lowe as a “brutal break-up”. The final track This Is How It Went shows both the pain and the growth perhaps the best, “And let me write a song like all the songs I love to listen to / Writing 'cause I'm healing, never writing songs to hurt you / Using what I'm best at and I hope you do the same”.

This Is How Tomorrow Moves shows both a raw pain as well as a new self-assuredness. It shows the exact kind of clarity I wish I had when I was 24.

Highlights: Take A Bite, Post, Everything I Want

A Wild Podcast Rec Appears!

I never planned to recommend podcasts. I don’t even listen to a lot of podcasts! Most Wednesdays I listen to We Watch Wrestling with Matt McCarthy and Vince Averill, and on Thursdays I listen to So True with Caleb Hearon. I listened to the last season of Bandsplain because Yasi Salek was covering Grunge bands.

But that’s really it.

But when I saw that LUXXURY and Diallo Riddle had comedian John Early on their podcast One Song to discuss ABBA’s “Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)”, it was an instant listen.

I’ve enjoyed LUXXURY’s song breakdowns on Tik Tok for years, because I love how he approaches specifically pop and dance music from a technical and cultural standpoint. This episode is no different! The trio explore this all-time dancefloor hit in great detail while listening to the raw audio stems.

Also, John Early has been funny and good in everything he’s ever done.

Check out this video from the episode!

luxxury

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Hot Singles in Your Area!

Here are some great singles that dropped in the last week.

Peaceful Place - Leon Bridges (in announcing his first album in 3 years, Leon Bridges shares a single that goes exactly where you thought the 50’s-style soul singer would go—a 70’s style world-y bongo-driven jam. Hoping and praying this new album is Leon’s What’s Going On!)
Moto(R) - The Jesus Lizard (your favorite punk band’s favorite punk band is putting out their first album IN 26 YEARS! next month)
Sprinter Brain - Wild Pink (2nd single from upcoming new album, October 4th. Big Springsteen-y rock song! I look forward to this one more with each new single.)
Lucky - Zedd feat. Remi Wolf (2nd single from upcoming album, August 30th. Remi Wolf is such a great choice for a track in the Zedd style. Her voice is perfect for it!)
Bright Lights - The Killers (released to promote their upcoming hometown residency at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Straight up just a Bruce Springsteen song. Everyone is either doing Bruce or Neil Young these days.)