Max's Music Mondays with nickname jos and Fake Fruit
*rock on emojis* oh I'm fired up this week, time to freaking rock
Welcome to Max’s Music Mondays - a ~music discovery newsletter~ where I get too excited about songs I love. I hope you love them too. If you do, follow along on spotify and please respectfully smash that subscribe button. Let me know if you do, I’ll send you my favorite nighttime sleep-aids or send you a thank you playlist or something.
Ok ok ok let’s just be real with each other. I am tired as heck. I had family in town this weekend and while I cherished every moment of it, I am, again, tired as heck. So tired that my brain isn’t really interested in crafting a deeply moving essay to open this week’s newsletter (there’s always next week!!), so I’ll keep it brief. This week’s songs rock and I’m thrilled to write about them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy :)
This Week’s Songs
Please please follow along here ^^ for this week’s and every week’s songs. Each song is perfect and that is an objective fact and in no way my biased opinion i promise.
regroup - nickname jos
There’s something about this song that has won me over. Got me so good it’s like there’s a post-it note on the front of my brain that just won’t let me forget about it. Its simplicity is charming, this intro welcoming and human. When nickname jos starts the verse, I’m struck twice. Some might even say double struck. First, the layers - the two vocals stacked right up front, it’s intoxicating, I find myself hearing each as I sway from side to side. Second, the content - the lyrics are vulnerable and straight-ahead, there’s nothing to hide behind, we’re seeing the real pain of this story from the first moment. It hits its heaviest around 30 seconds, that brutal admission of “whether or not you flip your coin on me this time” lining up around the heaviest bit of production, that warm bass dropping right on top of everything. The drums pick up their groove a little for this Asking-The-Tough-Questions chorus. For a song that feels so light, it’s pulling me in deeper and deeper and really making me feel. Some fuzzy chords ring out alongside this verse, and you can just feel something coming. Everything building quickly, jos giving us a quick glimpse, a reminder, that there’s a lot more left in the vocal tank. That this mellow performance is a choice (and a good one imo) but that there’s a lot of emotion buried here begging to break out. The ATTQ chorus hits again, this one seeming to float out further, guitar chords like ripples in the water. And now that ‘something coming’ has arrived. A couple notes to welcome us over, and then we dive in. nickname jos lets the music do the talking, the moment exploding out. The drums pushing with urgency, the rest of the band finding their own groove. The vocals are spread wide, and hit with all types of effects, they feel far away and floating further away. Almost like they’re just hanging on to reality, falling into a dream. There’s something so demanding about this cymbal too. Right in the middle of the mix, but there’s something going on, holding it back from ringing out. It creates a really harsh effect, almost folding into itself? But whatever it is, it almost feels like a rock, all these other pieces anchored to it as they swirl around. When I listen to these songs, it’s usually on replay, running through a few times as I write. And when this one returns to the start it’s almost unrecognizable. But the journey, exciting and unexpected as it may be, always feels natural. A really delightful song.
Follow nickname jos on IG / Spotify
No Mutuals - Fake Fruit
Sometimes I just wanna rock. And lately, I’ve been in that very mood. So all praise to the music discovery gods for bringing this one into my ears and my life. Those first aggressive strums, the gentle cymbal taps from side to side. The second guitar joins the party too, quickly falling into a lovely surfy riff before holding steady through the verses. The vocals kick in, fashionably late but making an entrance. A full-throated assertion. There’s clearly a lot that’s gotten us to this point, FF’s lead singer Hannah D’Amato flying high from the first line. But that story doesn’t live in this song and it doesn’t need too. Instead we get the bubbled-over anger, the clear-eyed acceptance and rejection of these moments that has resulted from whatever’s already taken place. The lyrics are clear and repeated, leaving no doubt to the source of this heat. “I don’t wanna wait to be christened as… cool”. Stretching out that first line and hammering it home. Refusing to finish it just makes the resolve that much sweeter. Each repetition of the line offering room for more emotion to fly forward. When we finally hit that ‘cool’ for the first time, D’Amato makes a meal of it and I’m loving every single bite. That familiar riff running wild underneath it all again. The next phrase is even angrier and more personal. The passion pushes to the edge, D’Amato’s vocals about to explode, and in such a satisfying result, lands a delightful blow - telling someone they look like a fool. Everything fades back for a moment, but when we get that next ‘cool’ sooner than expected, the whole band is stoked (including me, as a listener I think of myself as in the band now). Most evident in the drums, just letting loose. The band just feels at full force as the guitar rips off some new notes. That adventuring continues over the smokescreen verse, and here you just get the sense that the song is a dang a train. There’s absolutely no stopping its power and momentum, no matter what you might try this thing will simply have to rock on. The band flirts with changing that narrative, as everything mellows at 2:12. It’s the most intimate the vocals get, and in another world this would be a touching and sweet moment that could be pulled and stretched into another song entirely. But the band just can’t resist sending it back out to space one last time, and I’m so glad they can’t because this last section also rocks and I’m savoring this energy. Punishing yet cathartic, haven’t been able to shake this one for a few weeks. Oh and also check this music video, yeehaw.
Follow Fake Fruit on IG / Spotify
Man oh man, music is just so good… Don’t you think? I hope you dug this week’s as much as I did.
Business time: Please follow the playlist and please please pass it along to anyone you know who might be in need of new music!! The more people here, the more people hearing these amazing songs. We got a bunch of new faces this week, I hope you enjoyed it half as much as I enjoyed seeing you all here, this shit really does make my day!!!
Talk to you on Friday!! Have a, dare I say it, perfect(!?!?!) week!!!
Max