april is a hoe
i’m queering spring, and unsurprisingly it’s running late
wassup y’all, welcome to the tenth regular installment of lexi listens, my little arts n culture lifestyle blog. if you missed the march sletter (sletter 9), you can check it out here. and you can check out my feb profile of boston rock band warmachine here.
i’m frankly shocked i got this one out — it’s been a busy month and as i write this very sentence i am on a plane to mexico city. but we made it. this month’s sletter is a lot of music for spring! mixed in there is some other new music that i’m fucking with heavily, an absurd run of live shows that frankly has no end in sight, n some really cutting cultural criticism. lol. enjoy! playlists at tha bottom.
music for spring
it doesn’t feel like i’ve been doing this for that long but here i am writing about music for the season for the third time. this selection of albums for spring are probably the happiest sounding music that i’ve written about for the sletter lol. there’s joy, optimism, and plenty of playfullness here. and lots of piano. but hey it’s my sletter so of course there’s melancholy too. enjoy.
music for a spring day when u wish it was 10-20 degrees warmer and ur thinking about like, ur ex or that project u never finished or whatever but lowkey ur still vibing still tho - philly-based star moles released highway to hell back in february; it took me a minute for this album to get a hold of me, but now it will not let go. dont get fooled by the name and the devilish cover art: highway to hell is filled with wistful, beautifully lush bedroom pop piano ballads with sweet acoustic accompaniments and gentle percussion (lots of shakers). on top of a base of optimistic-sounding tracks, emily moales sings with twinges of pain and longing and stabs of regret as she takes us through vignettes of her life. take the track the end: on the first verse on the album, there’s a dissonance between the bright piano and the self loathing lyrics: “it was all going okay/ till i woke up to today/ a beast of elbows and knees”. time is frankly pure poetry, as moales sings ghostlike over lightly reverbed churning guitars, first longingly, then disdainfully. on the back half of the album, the more dramatic and melancholy control freak sticks out; another piano ballad, this time a solo, on which moales lists through beautiful vocal runs the things she’d change about herself when she looks in the mirror, before asking for someone to snap her out of it, turning to her lover: “your eyes go deep deep deep like the trenches of the sea/ here’s so much I’ll never reach”. oof fuck me upppppp. give this album a spin when you feel the moment calling. it’ll inch its way under your skin if you let it.
some v fun and pretty indie pop-rock music that’s actually depressing just don’t listen too close lol - the sophomore album from brooklyn-via-philly artist victoryland dropped and it’s been getting some traction, for good reason, with writeups in pitchfork, stereogum and a q&a on nina. my heart is a room with no camera in it calls back to some iconic 2010s indie pop-rock, while bringing a bit more of an experimental edge with instrumentation that grips you while listening and stays on loop in your head when you turn it off. the album kicks off with some animal collective sounding electric guitar and some teasing rim-shot percussion on here i stand. it’s a perfect warmup to the track that really sets things off: no cameras, an upbeat, indie pop bop on which mccamman shouts the album’s hooky eponymous refrain: “i have so much love to give/ my heart is a room with no cameras in it bound to the falling down/ watch me fade out”. front to back, my heart is absolutely filled with bangers, from the aforementioned songs plus i got god, and my personal fav you were solved. if all you paid attention to was the gorgeous guitar-driven pop melodies, you’d miss lyrics about the harsher realities of life, love lost, loneliness. on i got god, mccamman looks inward, but finds only expanding emptiness, described succinctly and beautifully: “i took a look inside the way that it felt the fear is old and/ a death of sorts/ there’s talks of inanimate voids/ and laminate folders/ full of family photos/ crushed cans of soda/ mothers wave from doorways/ in ostinato/ towards an open/ fractal of nothing”. on i’ll show you mine, the perfectly floaty piano-forward album closer, mcamman still seems disaffected: “show me your ugly body/ i’ll show you mine”. despite everything, the sonic and the lyrical don’t feel so disconnected on my heart. in fact, this is what pop music has always been about: heartbreak, feeling incomplete, yearning. what’s more impressive is how victoryland manages to build on so much reference material without sounding trite. it goes beyond that in fact, often triggering that beautiful anticipatory feeling when that well-known refrain is about to drop, a feeling that this pop-averse girl doesn’t often get. check it out. (oh and after i wrote this, victoryland announced a north america tour, including some dates supporting lcd soundsystem. huge. see ya at the rockwell?)
something a lil more goofy n playful - i’m not totally sure why but nyc-based artist frog’s 2025 album the count has been on heavy repeat lately. it’s got a lot of pretty piano tracks, bouncy choruses, and silly love songs. take bitten by my love, where the narrator takes on a vampire persona for some odd reason (“babe i know its crazy i don’t see you that often/all i wanna do is take you back to my coffin”) before the choral refrain: “you were bitten my love”. there’s the outright goofy and horny sax-a-ma-phone, where he sings “you’re my sax-a-ma-phone, babe/ i blow til you moan, babe” before “taxi rolls to your back screen door/ before you know it all your clothes is on the floor”. plus, baruch a atta and caroline both have me belting the chorus even if i can’t quite parse the lyrics lol. idk it’s silly, it’s goofy, it’s horny, it doesn’t always make sense, and i love it all the same. sunny spring day vibe when you’re feelin loose.
some more new music
some gorgeous r&b inspired electroacoustic - bk-based samba jean-baptiste dropped his third album, +3, at the beginning of april and it’s been on heavy repeat for me. the 17 track, 44 minute album is filled with r&b/neo-soul inspired and electro-acoustic tracks with a very contemporary production. the first half of +3 is mostly electro-acoustic, with gentle acoustic guitar and vocals and some interesting synth sounds and production; acoustic guitar driven forced perspective and object 9 stand out for me. the transition is subtle, but as the album goes on it has a little more bass-heavy r&b production on the back half. towards the end of the album, grey sky lunacy (feat. swan ellen eden & rockie rode) is a perfect blend of all the different sounds on the album, starting off with the ambient city sounds of barking dogs, police sirens, aimless acoustic guitar, stern strings, before some high pitched synthy sounds come in. then finally, the bass n kick drop as jean-baptiste raps the final verse over a somber but always gentle beat: “i’m writing you just in time/ she hittin me back, surprise/ i’m sittin here livin a lie/ it’s lookin me right in the eyes”. i’d listen to the last minute of this gorgeous track over and over and over again. the way jean-baptiste is able to blend tracks where he sings over gentle guitar and raps over r&b beats is reminiscent of bk-contemporary deer park but also a bit of dean blunt, especially the latte’rs album zushi which juxtaposes gentle features from joanne robertson and panda bear with a$ap rocky. it’s a bit of a magic trick and i’m obsessed. yeah it goes, give it a listen.
some frantic doomy rock from vermont - a couple months ago i wrote about burlington-based robber robber’s dizzying single the sound it made; their album two wheels move the soul dropped at the beginning of the month and it’s laden with more of that frenetic energy. the vibe is kind of like, frantically preparing for an impending doomsday scenario but you’re moving through sludge like you’re in one of those nightmares where you’re trying to run but your legs won’t move. it was interesting to read about the group’s creative process, in which fronter nina cates often composes tracks digitally and then tries to see if the group can play them using only guitars and of course drums. this creative choice is very apparent on tracks like avalanche sound effect, where the guitars often sound intentionally tinny, and the sound it made, where the percussion sounds more breakbeat than rock and roll. lots of really cool tracks here, check this one out then go see them play at deep cuts on may 23.
an album from a new boston group - real men cry may be a group made up of members of art rockers main era, but their debut album funeral takes a different bend, balancing bedroom-folk, gentle rock songs, and unexpected drum solos that go hard as hell and last approximately 90 seconds, often with post-rock style song structures (post-folk? post folk, y’all) and songs that flow into each other. the lofi-recording and hushed vocals give an intimate listening experience as though you’ve been invited into the bedroom where i assume they record in. boy song stands out to me, with a melancholic riff that wobbles back and forth before making way for things to get as loud and unhinged as they do on this album, closing with one last callback to that damn riff again. so does melodramatic tears fall down my face and their sadness reminds me of the ocean: “i don’t like the way my tears taste/ dripping down my throat/ i like how they stick to my face/ giving me a natural glow”. yeah, i think you can guess the vibes. there is also some unexpected saxophone on that one that i greatly enjoyed. this one feels right at home with theadoore and or best offer (below). congrats on the debut, y’all, it’s a treat to listen to.
some singles that you’ll be coming back to fs - return of this little segment. some heaters this month!
heart-shaped eyes - yangze. i guess i am fully just an
eschohoe now. heart-shaped eyes is the first new music from yangze, a — yes, you guessed it — copenhagen-based producer. the track is a dreamy little electronic pop moment with a present but balanced bassy-beat and extremely catchy vocal hook that is the stuff that earworms are made of. yangze’s debut ep was back in 2019, since then they’ve been mostly quiet (aside from having a hand in the ~incredible~ edit of smerz’s you got time and i got money with clairo) but it seems from their social media we can expect more music from them soon. i’m sat.nothing matters (feat. mares) - rip swirl. it looks like berlin-based producer and multintrumentalist rip swirl has been cooking some things up. here we’ve got some sludgy guitar music with some heavy riffs n pretty vocals. truly never know what you’re gonna get from this guy, but whether it’s trip hop or rock music i always enjoy it.
back of a car (feat. koilwood) - a good yea. back of a car is the latest single from a good year, ahead of their upcoming debut album (aside from the score they released). is it possible to make a mumblecore pop song? somehow it works. they’re innovating over there in copenhagen. excited for the album to drop, the rest of the singles have been excellent.
hunter - sindy. stockholm-based sindy has released a run of cloudrock-type singles going back to last year. the latest, hunter, is another one of these electroacoustic moments that’s all over the sletter: a moody acoustic guitar-driven track peppered with odd sounds and some pretty piano. bop.
live music corner
starting april off with a jest, then a bang - wednesday are easily one of my favorite bands of the last few years and it had been too long since seeing them. i got to roadrunner basically at doors and got a solid spot towards the front for the opener, who delivered a killer set; forgive me gouge away, i was not familiar with your game (am i getting into hardcore finally?). following them: wednesday on a wednesday (i mean there is a 14% chance after all). i’m sure by now you’ve seen clips of their april fool’s joke where they played the opening track off mj lenderman’s manning fireworks, which had us all scratching our heads for a sec. i thought she was throwing shade lol. a great bit. they started this set off with six very heavy tracks before slowing things down on formula one which is sneakily one of my fav tracks of theirs. after playing phish pepsi and then their cover of she’s actin’ single (and i’m drinking double), they had already played an extremely diverse set with tracks off their 2025 album bleeds, their 2023 album rat saw god, even their 2020 debut i was trying to describe you to someone (god DAMN fate is is so good), and then the aforementioned 2022 covers album mowing the leaves instead of piling ‘em up (i had never heard she’s actin single live so that was cool as hell, esp after hearing women without whisky at their last show that i saw nearly 2 years ago). curiously, they did not play anything off twin plagues as my friend nick pointed out. the set rounded out with the scream-filled bull believer and the hardcore track wasp, two songs that karly seems to love playing, and they do go hard as hell. i do wonder if their albums will keep getting heavier, that does seem to be the trajectory that she is on. anyways, another phenomenal performance from one of the best out right now just imo. a pleasure to be in attendance.
the sil delivers again - sometimes you just gotta go to the silhouette on a wednesday night and see a bunch of sick bands in the back room for like $15. this time? fortuna 500 kicked things off, i fucked heavy with a slowcore version of swamp in my hand, or as fronter cole friedman described it, “swamp in my hand on ketamine”. good shit. next was bk-based or best offer, a group that i was excited to see after narrowly missing their set at mudhouse in feb. i fully did not realize that this was a two piece and they absolutely floored me with their extremely dramatic experimental post-rock songs, grace schmidhauser on guitar and vocals and brian culligan on drums and a suitcase full of diy synths and other noise making devices. they played tracks off their 2024 album center as well as some new ones with an intensity that was incapacitating. obsessed. we sold out their tapes lol. do not sleep on this band. after their set, the obo members stepped into slightly different roles playing with tour-mates theadoore (whomst i did manage to catch at mudhouse in december lol), playing some rock music that i would describe as kind of twee but also post punk but also a bit jazzy. i think they mostly played songs off their debut from last july, fool’s errand, which whips. but there was one song toward the end of the set that i enjoyed very much that i can’t quite place. idk, maybe it’s new? if it is you can expect to hear about it. either way, a very, very fun set. and they had some incredible merch, including some hilarious shirts (copped, below) and some apparently handmade shirts by fronter grace ward. (plus, two graces, whaaaat.) headliner was clifford and whew man golden caravan is so fucking good — it had been a minute. miles scream singing the title track’s final refrain is forever burned into my brain: “i’ve seen the atrocities with my own eyes/ you cannot tell me what i know/ i’ve seen the sycophants with my own eyes/ you cannot tell me what i know”. fuck. the emo leaning ink blot went hard as hell, too. moshing on a wednesday night? it’s more likely than you’d think.
a damn seated show at the wang - it turns out april was the month of wednesday shows. on another wednesday night i trekked downtown w a friend to the wang theatre to sit in the balcony where we saw waxahatchee + mj lenderman play songs together on stage. the show started w berklee alum brennan wedl performing solo (this is not the rockwell LINK), playing some new songs along with many recent singles that sounded fantastic, and one or two oldies (red) with a mix of acoustic and electric. the story-telling performance of fake cowboy was perfect for the theatre; their vocals and incredible songwriting shined. congrats to them on signing with anti — i think we can expect a record this year? next, jake and katie came on stage playing acoustic guitar and were joined by performers playing pedal/lap steel/guitar/harmonica and keys. the stage was set with rugs and lamps and tv static and i’ll give it to them that they managed to set that living room vibe even if i should’ve brought a pair of binoculars. the two performed together for like 90 minutes, trading off songs. mj’s set list was very diverse, including a tearjerking performance of catholic priest — apparently a true story – as well as plenty of songs off of manning fireworks, boat songs, some covers, and at least a couple new songs (the one that was loosely about going fishing went crazyyy w some drone-y lap steel; i love when he goes sadboi mode). katie for her part gave a very polished performance as she is wont to do, with plenty of hits and plenty of songs from tiger’s blood. i was pleased that they played they titular song off that album together and was expecting to be in tears lol; somehow it was wristwatch that did me in. this one was really fun and the people watching was definitely a treat too.
top: binoculars not included. bottom: women 4 mj lenderman. some more shows that whipped - ok tbh this is just an excuse to share some photos, but here’s a quick roundup of some of my other favorite sets. i got to see cryogeyser full band for the first time at the start of the month and their set sounded so gorgeous, i’m still bumping their album from last year; full body 2 also played some bangers at that show. later that week, warmachine played a very emotional set (redundant) at dog haus butterfly, wheewwww they were good. towards the end of the month, i got introduced to heaven slight with their set at the rockwell, and they definitely fit into that experimental electronic art pop scene that is just burgeoning right now in nyc; the fronter had this incredible guitar sound, i think it was a guitar synth? they’ve got new music coming and i’ve got my eye on that. horse vision were also excellent at that show lol, but i already knew that. plus i got a chance to see spirit ghost play songs off their new album ordinary people plus some new new ones, followed by yet another haunting set from dead gowns and no we’re not tired of seeing you, gen, then finally a couple songs from liz cooper before i had to dip out for my trip. okay that’s all i’ve got!!!
next two months of shows - okay i liked this format, let’s do it again. here’s everything i’m interested in for the next two months, plus a highlight of the three shows i’m most excited for that you can still get a ticket to.
three exciting shows you can still get a ticket to - smerz - ica, fri 5/29; green river fest - greenfield, ma, fri-sun 6/19-21. dino gala album release show + gollylagging + warmachine + clifford, fri 6/19, brighton music hall.
the rest of may - snuggle - baby’s all right (nyc), mon 5/4 (tue 5/5 is sold out); dry cleaning + ywhw nailgun - paradise rock club, tue 5/5; elias rønnenfelt + evanora unlimited - crystal ballroom, wed 5/6; c2c festival nyc - knockdown center (nyc), fri 5/8; somerville porchfest - sat 5/9; ray bull + babehoven - the sinclair, tue 5/12; robber robber + empath + clifford - deep cuts, sat may 23.
the rest of june - someday fest - warehouse xi and parking lot (free), sat-sun 6/6-7. dino gala album release show + gollylagging + warmachine + clifford, fri 6/19, brighton music hall; greg mendez + scarlet rae - fri jun 26, the sinclair.
oh and some stupid exciting future shows - youbet + warmachine + pew pew - fri, july 10, the lillypad; kim gordon + voyeur - sun, sep 13, paradise rock club; grouper - wed, sep 16, town hall (nyc), looks like it already sold out.
what you really came here for
we deserve more as fans than what passes today as “digital marketing” - by now i’m sure you’ve heard the discourse about “psyops” sparked by musician and cultural critic eliza mclamb’s substack post that discussed chaotic good, a digital marketing consultant that uses what they call narrative campaigns, “user generated content” i.e. content created by paid consultants under the guise of fan accounts, and fan pages, all to promote many mainstream and independent artists alike, including geese; per mclamb’s essay: “SNL performances and favorable Pitchfork reviews don’t move the needle—TikToks about these things do”. i’ve been kind of mid on geese since getting killed came out, so am i taking a victory lap here? well, no, not exactly. for starters, it’s a bit conceited for anyone to suggest that because they do not like an artist, the only explanation for said artist’s popularity is shady marketing tactics; it presupposes that you are The Arbiter Of Taste. secondly, a few of my favs were alleged to be clients of chaotic good, including mj lenderman, so it would be hypocritical to rail against this. in fact, as music and cultural critic grace robins-somerville lays out in an excellent piece for paste magazine, these kinds of marketing practices are actually extremely commonplace. that’s all well and good, but still, it’s understandable for any fan (or hater) to feel that these practices are unfair. if you go on social media today, it’s impossible to avoid sponsored content from creators and influencers and whoever else, but at least that content has to be clearly demarcated — the FTC requires it. marketing agencies like chaotic good flip traditional sponsored content on its head by creating “user generated content” on behalf of their artists. but ultimately, is it any different for an employee of a marketing company to be paid to post as though they are a fan of a band? it’s extremely dishonest, and it should be illegal. in a sea of ai generated slop and fake news, fans deserve more than getting tricked by their favorite artists.
a very important collaboration - philadelphia-based shoegaze band (what a redundant phrase) tagabow recently announced that their interlude tapes will be available for purchase soon, which i’m assuming refers to the group’s interludes that they often play while they tune and then jam to between songs. in honor of the tapes, the group released a hilarious music video of sorts with method/satirical comedian william banks, in which banks attempts to break the world record for most girlfriends in three minutes (watch below). if you’re not familiar with banks, he went viral about 18 months ago after getting arrested for removing a zionist sign from someones lawn, and then started an extended bit in which he went to jail, posting real-time updates. while it was ongoing, the whole thing seemed too insane to be true, but banks committed to the bit so hard that he had everyone questioning reality. after posting a “jailbreak” video and then admitting that it was a hoax, banks parlayed his overnight virality into a memecoin called “white moses”, financed by tech bros, before ultimately rugpulling. through the pump and dump scheme he sent $50k to various palestinian charities, posting about the whole saga online. at this point, he had completely blurred the lines between what was real and what was a bit, but the charities verified receipt of the funds. icon. we stan. personally, my favorite bit is when he canvassed alec baldwin about car world.
that’s all for today’s sletter. thanks again for tapping in. here’s the playlist on apple music, qobuz, and tidal. if you enjoy the music, support the artists by buying their music and merch at a show or on bandcamp or nina. if you somehow still want to know more music that i’m listening to, check me out on last.fm. until next time!