Fluxblog 357: Melody's Echo Chamber • Mura Masa/Lil Uzi Vert/PinkPantheress/Shygirl • Foxes
Plus all the INDIE SLEAZE you can handle
This week’s playlist is THIS WAS INDIE SLEAZE 2002-2008. This one was inspired by another “indie sleaze” playlist that was doing well on Spotify, and while I liked the concept and think the term is resonant and speaks to a specific era, I thought the execution of that playlist was incoherent chronologically and aesthetically. This is an era I know very well – this was my actual 20s and a lot of this stuff was central to the early phases of Fluxblog, plus I did a decent amount of DJing when Fluxblog was hot in the middle of that decade. (By the way, did you know Fluxblog turned 20 years old this week?) I maintain that “indie sleaze” is very particular to the Bush era and there’s a significant vibe shift into the Obama years that trades out the overt sleaze and horniness for a more wholesome and/or twee energy. So no, I would not consider the fairly sexless music of Animal Collective or Vampire Weekend – artists you know I love! – “indie sleaze.”
The other problem with that playlist was how much crucial music from the era was not being represented, and I think all of this probably comes down to whoever made that original playlist being on the young side. It galls me to see artists like Scissor Sisters, Goldfrapp, and Gravy Train get written out of this story, especially since doing so basically erases key queer voices from the whole thing. So this playlist is my corrective, a warts-and-all historically accurate representation of a particular vibe and a particular moment. I know this one has been very resonant and nostalgic for a lot of people already! Just spending so much time with this music this week has definitely put me back in touch with a lot of music I love but haven’t spent a lot of time with in most recent years. [Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube]
By the way, if you’re interested in this period I highly recommend checking out the two Nymphet Alumni episodes about American Apparel, which offer an interesting angle on Dov Charney and his works from the perspective of three very smart fashion girls who were small children at the time all of this music was coming out. I recommend Nymphet Alumni in general – it’s easily one of my favorite podcasts.
Speaking of podcasts, my Patreon exclusive podcast miniseries FLOPUARY concludes this week with an episode in which my co-host Molly Mary O’Brien from And Introducing discuss how to get out of a flop era. You can check it out for a $5 donation which will also give you access to all the premium episodes including the Led Zeppelin, U2, and Sonic Youth miniseries and archival interviews with bands such as Car Seat Headrest, Hot Chip, Japandroids, and Belle & Sebastian. I loved doing this Flopuary series, I hope you listen!
Reflections That You Can’t See
Melody’s Echo Chamber “Looking Backward”
“Looking Backwards” has the aesthetics and feel of modern dissociation wave psychedelia but the groove of classic Motown. This gives the song a powerful sensation of forward momentum but also a dazed feeling, like you’re just careening into a pleasant void. Melody Prochet’s lyrics get a bit obscured on account of her thin, high voice blurring into the treble but the lines that hit the ear clearly suggest a cosmic approach to processing a break up. There’s a wave of disappointment cresting through this track, but the primary emotion is closer to acceptance.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Not Something You Own
Mura Masa & Lil Uzi Vert & PinkPantheress featuring Shygirl “Bbycakes”
I’m not sure I get the major label logic of officially listing Shygirl as the featured artist on this song when she sings about as much as Lil Uzi Vert and PinkPantheress on this Mura Masa track, I suppose it’s because she sings the most memorable part of the hook? In any case, as much as this probably looks like a pile up of random young artists this song feels remarkably organic and effortlessly catchy. I’m sure you could argue a lot about where this lands in genre terms, but I think broadly this is a pleasing intersection of Lil Uzi Vert’s melodic singsong style and a post-PC Music/hyperpop aesthetic that’s like an uncanny valley version of pop for weird digital children. As in a lot of hyperpop music the childlike affect gets subverted by adult concerns – in this case, a suggestion that all three singers are chafing against the restrictions of monogamy and negotiating some kind of polycule situation.
Buy it from Amazon.
I Let Somebody Bury Me
Foxes “Growing on Me”
“Growing on Me” starts off with a tone halfway between the euphoria-chasing bopping of Carly Rae Jepsen and the very particular wholesome energy of Maggie Rogers, and honestly, that odd little pop cocktail would be enough to be appealing and interesting to me. The song gets genuinely surprising as it shifts gears into the chorus and moves into a guitar riff that seems to slash and grind backwards against the beat, adding unexpected tension to an otherwise light song and serving as an unusual contrast with Foxes’ bright tone and optimistic sentiment. But then it makes some thematic sense – she’s saying someone has grown on her and she was afraid to admit it, and that riff feels like the resistance she had to move through to get to this more open-hearted feeling.
Buy it from Amazon.
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• This Todd in the Shadows video essay examining Katy Perry’s horrendous flop album Witness is exceptional, a very thoughtful and often funny examination of every baffling decision she made in this era. This simply would not work as well in any other format, this guy is a master of making critical arguments in video.
• Alex Scordelis of Vice goes deep in investigating exactly why a guy runs into a wedding cake in the famous video for Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain.”
• Finally, here’s a fantastic essay about Joy Division by Penny Valentine from the November 1980 issue of Creem, written and published not long after Ian Curtis died. Valentine was an incredible writer.
