Max's Music Mondays with Crosslegged and ggwendolyn.
A classic two-tune Monday. Time to freak about some good music.
Welcome to Max’s Music Mondays. My ~music discovery newsletter~ where I get too excited about songs I love. I hope you love them too. If you do, you can follow along on spotify and please be sure to absolute smash that dang subscribe button! tysm :) Your paid subscriptions go towards supporting the artists you read about here too!! That’s right(!!), the artists who made This Weeks Songs are getting paid!! <3
We keep marching forward, slowly but surely. Gathering steam and gathering a great group of people who are so generously supporting me and these incredible musicians I love. Next week we’ve got our next SUBSCRIBER ONLY post - an increidble performance from Mei Semones, with two string players alongside her! Are you kidding?? No better time than now to help support this community and the artists who make it so special.
Last week was our off week over here at MMM HQ. Something new I’m incorporating as I better understand my capabilities and needs when it comes to making this sustainable and as meaningful as I hope it can be. A week off to live life, to reset, and to work on some important projects. It gave me the space to lay important groundwork for future posts. And gave me the excuse to actually prioritize it rather than get lost in the shuffle of life. It feels so good to finally be incorporating this thing I love (MMM, ty again for reading) into my life in a more consistent way. I even made a new Notion dashboard………… So now it’s all coming into focus - just as a quick update and snapshot of things to come:
Week 1 (this week!!) - The Classic - Two New Artist Discoveries.
Week 2 - One New Artist, One Paid Subscriber Only Project
Week 3 - One New Artist & Monthly Music Recap
Week 4 - No post, busy developing and learning and cooking up ideas and recharging.
So all in all, we still get four artists to discover and share every month, one subscriber exclusive, and all in a more frequent way (so I don’t have to wait two weeks when I’m bursting at the seams to share a song).
And this week off, on top of all this thinking and planning, I got a tattoo. A gentle swan on my right forearm, a tiny flower in its mouth. I’ve been lucky to get a handful from this artist now, I’m sure I’ve written about her before too. As she helped me become more myself with every poke. Now she’s working from Ojai, a 90-minute drive from me, yet a universe away. There’s something so spiritual about traveling for art. About choosing the exact setting you want to have this experience. It’s something I’ve loved when it comes to music. Seeing my favorite artists at my favorite venues or festivals, and (I admit with some shame) shying away from others when it hasn’t felt right. As I get ready to go to SXSW for the first time, it’s another opportunity - well a bunch all packed together - to be intentional and present. It changes the experience and changes how it all hits me, and even though I’ve experienced it for a lifetime, I’ve really only been realizing and thinking about it over the past few years. And never in the context of this newsletter. Something to think about. Hm. Where do you read this? Where do you listen? Let me know, I am curious. I hope these songs land for you, wherever they might find you.
This Week’s Songs
Here’s the playlist!!! Enjoy, like, share, listen, and so on and so on!!! 730 listeners and counting. Means so much to see this little thing popping up on artists’ pages. That’s thank to you, so thank you.
Crosslegged - Automatic
What a record. This song seems to transcend time in such an exciting way. The kind of song I get lost in, and then something catches my ear, jolting me out of a daze, sending me to spotify to see what song it is, and yet again, it’s Automatic. Major shoutout to Marg.mp3 on TikTok - someone who has SUCH taste and has turned me onto more music than I can keep track of (this Hana Stretton record is taking over my life too). She sold me quick -
Her vocal intonation kinda reminds me of Bjork in the Sugarcubes sometimes, but her sonic approach to art pop and indie folks is just really unique to me.
The words stuck, and this record caught hold of my ear instantly. Refuses to let it go. Let’s get into it.
The sun rises, the gentle organ, the amp fuzz, that wet guitar responding to each line. It’s transporting me to the desert, watching a calm morning begin. Those final notes linger, clean strums coming down as Crosslegged joins too. Her voice sounding SO good over this guitar and bass. It’s clean and soft, moving easily and so full of emotion. Just takes a couple lines to feel it. The way Crosslegged is able to deliver these melodies - her vocal rhythm not worried about sticking to each beat, the phrases flowing and pacing however feels right. At 0:39, she reaches up for a new register, her voice sharp and powerful, but still with a softness that feels welcoming. The jump up beckons the drummer, and the song picks up even more momentum. This thing is just so dang breezy, I can’t help slowly rocking back and forth, rolling with the band.
Crosslegged’s vocals are the star here, mesmerizing, enticing. Pulling you in, pushing you to the edge, finding a perfect balance between them both. The end of this section, the I can tell it’s youuuu, the culminating point of this more cutting section, higher energy, with emotion boiling up as that you drags out. Generously, and masterfully, she pulls back from that point, just observing the cruelness of it all with gentle angels singing harmonies beneath her.
The song flows on, verse two bouncing from lily pad to lily pad, each syllable finding just the right moment to be shared. These vocals offering such a nice contrast to the still-swaying band. The quiet organ soothing as it rises up underneath the band. Holding everything together. Warm hums broken up by these ah-ah-ah-ah’s and oh-oh-oh-oh’s, sprinkling in that prickly guitar strum. What a fun moment. Seemingly free of shape or form, just feeling your way through this situation, through this music. We jump back to that When you see me runnin’ prechorus just a moment before I’m ready. Exciting to be jolted out of such a beautiful moment unexpectedly. Especially when it’s to return to something special. Before you know it, back in the chorus again. The cruelty unavoidable. But Crosslegged finds some space beyond it quickly too.
The vocals bigger and wider and lighter than ever. These waves of layers feeling immense and loving and spiritual and powerful and through it all, soft. I would take a 10min version of just this 2:12-2:45. Crosslegged pops the balloon again - jumping back out for one last repetition. The song could end here. Complete. Satisfying. But as it starts to fade, it finds a new life around the fire of this organ. Nighttime now, a campfire appearing. Crosslegged, slow and almost morose (okay vocab!) beneath a new filter. The new pace really sucks me in further. The vocals here are wild, such a crazy tone, the emotion and the processing of it all is palpable. No one can take me from you. The pain and the wanting. It’s beautiful. In the final moments, the organ tries to find its new footing at the bottom of the ocean. It all feels meditative and calm, everyone falling in line together one last time. A heartbeat slowing, a moment ending. It’s so serene and beautiful, yet still weird and interesting at every turn.
A great song that’s given me so much with every new listen, and an album that’s exactly the same. Crosslegged is so cool and bringing these stories together with originality.
Follow Crosslegged on IG / Spotify
ggwendolyn - my year of rest & relaxation
yeah i’m back on my bullshit… this is SO my shit I cannot even believe it. The perfect local news attempt to scare its audience leaves a smile on my face as ggwendolyn opens up over acoustic guitar. Am I now looking back at old MMM attempts to celebrate Christmas in July as a cry for help? Yes… and I think she’s got me there. But no shame and no time for it, too much good music to take in here. ggwendolyn’s voice is so wonderful - rich, full, and honing this ability to let phrases together. Letting the groove split up the words exactly how they were meant to. The melody in this opening section feels unique - climbing and climbing but holding this darkness too. A shout from the background wakes us up and helps us step forward. The guitar changes tone, this new cleaner, brighter sound falling on either side of the mix, opening the middle for ggwendolyn to shine down the center, this new melody feeling so charming. It feels like this moment could stretch forever, these two parts delivering enough for a Good Song. But if anyone settled for that, they wouldn’t end up in friggin MMM’s and here we are!!!!
As we approach the mountain in their room, that background vocal sheds its filter and rides a fresh drum fill and this song launches into another stratosphere. The damn iiiieieiiiieiieIIIIiii rips so hard, the song again (just like as it moved out of the intro) stepping up and into this cleaner fuller sound. The first pass rolls over a clean drums and a bouncing bass line, building a second time through, the return of that bright acoustic. And folks it’s gonna build again. You know what that means! That’s right, it’s time for What Wild Addition Will ggwendolyn Make That Will Shock Your Ears and Explode Your Heart?!?!
Will it be:
a. A crusty breakbeat sprinting forward with guitar the strokes would drool over and flickering synths that feel like lights ripped off a haunted house
b. deep swelling synths that sound like whale calls draped over four on the floor kicks, all while the tempo speeds and slows at will
c. ripping the rug out from under the band, ditching everyone but adding at least(??) five layers of harmonies and a DAMN XYLOPHONE
Get those answers in now because as soon as 1:07 hits it’ll be too late… Ok that’s right it’s a!!! God damn this thing explodes out of nowhere and rips so fucking hard. The band expressing some of this pent up anger, frustration, dissapointment, and shame.
That energy lingers into the next scene too. Drums racing by, dazed out guitar chords strummed in the desert heat. ggwendolyn trying to sift through the day to day struggles. Trying to make sense of it all, of life, of themselves. Heavily self critical, hearing the voices of her own critics - maybe real, maybe in her own head - shouting back before we let it all out in the chorus again.
That bass, thicker than ever. Layering the guitars fuzzy as can be with rapid pace. Some feedback pushing and pulling opens the door for the full band to join, this time the kick drum knocking SO hard. You can just feel all the emotion pouring out even as ggwendolyn stays steady. What a song my goodness. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Follow ggwendolyn on IGÂ /Â Spotify
Thank you as always. Again - what a damn honor it is every time a see a paid subscription come through. To trust in me and believe in these artists. Whew, tearing up just thinking about it. Our next goal is to hit FIFTY paid subscribers - when we get there, we all win!! These artists will get $25 when I write about them, continuing to increase our subscriber-exclusive payments to $50 as well. Plus, all our paid subscribers will get a little surprise too :) AAAAND all of you, paid or free, will get a bonus playlist to help celebrate. So sign up, share with someone who would might like this, and more than anything, enjoy the music.
See you next time for another wild exclusive performance.
Yeehaw,
Max