MMM with Keizo Fish & Okudaxij
Two Songs. Both Wonderful. Both Your New Fav. Plus new songs from Medium Build, Maisyn, mer marcum, and more!!!
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. Your subscriptions go such a long way. Free subscribers help these artists get the audience they deserve, paid subscriptions help keep this thing running and also PAY THE ARTISTS!!! 2/3 of every subscription goes right back to the artists I write about. Please consider supporting independent music and music journalism(?) here today <3
Folks!! I’m running late today!! Spent the weekend in Brooklyn celebrating love with two friends at their beautiful wedding and now? I’m fricking behind schedule!! So if you’re mad, blame them for having such a great wedding.
Let’s just get to it because these songs are excellent and the ATOD recap at the end of the email is FULL OF HITS. Please take a listen as you scroll through <3
Talk soon.
What you thought I wouldn’t plug this again??!! The redbrd cassette is out! The first release on Mendel - it really would mean the world to have your support and I think you’ll love the music <3 <3
I’m so in awe of the musical universe Noah creates in his music, and having this physical copy has only deepened my admiration. Special stuff here, get your copy today. And again!! I offer! If you want a cassette player, please respond to this email and I will find you a great one. Such a great format, I can’t recommend it enough.
Keizo Fish - papa
Instantly transported by this jazzy dream of a groove, piano chords paired with the bass, both holding it down. Drums steady and bringing a cozy fuzziness, as that twinkling lead piano goes galavanting all over the track. It’s beautiful, it’s peaceful, it’s nostalgic, and relaxing. A moment I could stay in forever.
At 0:19, Keizo Fish joins with vocals too. It feels like we’re picking things up in the middle of a letter, the writing too personal to be the very first thought. The band swiftly shifting into this new moment too. Simpler chords, bass line pushing the pace. The whole song tightening up to let Fish shine over top. And when he lets it open up a little it’s gonna be just fiiiiine, the band matches again, stretching out just a little, exploring but still contained. Little flourishes to fill the space.
There’s such a great balance to all of this. Feeling both serious and heavy but overall optimistic. It’s hard to hear lines like I know it hurts when you’re young / i know that you know. There’s such heartbreak in a moment like that, but the whole song seems sung from the other side of these feelings. Respecting them, but knowing, through experience, that things will get better.
After those lines, we get a beautiful instrumental moment. The drums held low, while new melodies seem to barely squeeze out. It’s a really lovely, underwater kind of feeling. Well produced.
The next section shows more of that optimism, peppered with some reality, it’s not always easy but it’s possible. Another great verse follows, out of it a brief guitar solo pops in, the song full of interesting little moments coming and going.
Crossing the 2min mark and Fish picks up right alongside that underwater melody from before. If I fight would you hold me down / If I'm mad would you stay around, I love it. They’re hypotheticals and maybe hyperbole, but they’re said by someone just needing some true love. Immediately sliding into a new section, running and running and running in circles, the groove’s hypnotic feel really maximized here. The wave crests and rushes us back to such sweet lyrics. And the delivery is so special too, 2:58’s dif-fer-rent-ev-er-ry-time is impossibly smooth.
Again paired with an instrument (which mostly feels like a guitar with sick effects but sometimes also sounds like a saxophone?? music magic), Fish offers some earnest questions. Trying so hard to find some resolution, some closure to this loss.
He reaches up for a falsetto, closing with a killer How can I ever replace you?
What a debut!!! My goodness, can’t wait to see what else is to come for Keizo Fish!!
Follow Keizo Fish on Instagram // on Spotify
Okudaxij - Why Do You Lie To Me
This song is so damn clean!!! My god. From first listen I was blown away by it all. So many stunning pieces to this puzzle, and it all just SOUNDS good. Not even on some hi-fi music-afficianado high horse, just as a guy who likes music. It feels so perfect.
Okudaxij opens with the titular lyric which makes one hell of an impact, the question repeated and I hear the emotion at its root, even if it feels light and easy here. It’s a lyric that we’ll return to, and is the thematic core of the song. A song about communication, about craving more, no matter the feelings that may come up. Okudaxij is asking for honesty, asking to be trusted with it, no matter how big or small.
His voice is so smooth, the delivery flowing so naturally. I love the dual vocals on either side of the mix, putting us in the center and giving the track a little more texture. Even in it’s unending prettiness, it never feels too polished. Boldly climbing the melody, letting the emotion pour out more explicitly as he reaches up for what are you try- / trying to hide / from me!?
Catching us below with those consistent and tasteful-as-all-hell acoustic guitars, and the steady kick drum. Okudaxij adding some pace as he thinks through what this omission could possibly be. That bit of wondering probably even more painful than whatever the truth actually is.
He punctuates the moment in this low register. Pleading, asking these questions and acknowledging the truth - why you push it down / it only comes back up - as the track swells with a new bass line, new sounds layered along the top.
The moment breaks but the tune continues to develop, a subtle organ, a sunny mandolin, the drummer opening up a little more. More color filling the track, it’s so lovely. But no time to wait, we’re diving right back in!
As this verse kicks off with a familiar structure, Okudaxij returns to the wondering and the frustrations/anxieties that come with it. Sprinkle a pedal steel guitar sliding over top, the drums ever so slightly bigger, it’s all working. Back down low, the band each taking a little space to shine as the vocals add a splash of anger.
That anger gets released in a gnarly little guitar solo, like the track boiled over, this was the only way to express the energy. The tone on the guitar is CRAZY, really impressed with every sound on this record. The bass going off in this solo too. As the guitar soars up for that final note, there’s a clear moment (1:45) where this could settle into a gorgeous and warm sunset of a jam. Each of these instruments worth listening to for as long as they’ll let us. But instead we find Okudaxij waiting for us one last time, a little guitar flickering underneath, some new percussion too, it’s an exciting scene, and could end the song.
But thank god it doesn’t!!! Because everything starts to build from here, and as we hear the titular lyric one last time, he takes off through the sky, the whole band supporting him up there. A new melody and a new synth to add some fun. He lands softly up on a cloud somewhere and the band savors it all for a few more moments. Damn, one heck of a song.
Follow Okudaxij on Instagram // on Spotify
Last Week on All The Other Days:
Together - Esme Emerson
Ok… is this the best band in the world?? The duo is back with another massive single and I am tragically obsessed.
I’ve been down, you’ve been down, let’s be down together
Their voices such a perfect match for each other, mesmerizing me and making the drop feel even more epic. We switch up the delivery in the second verse, new melodies finding new shapes while new sounds add even more character around the edges of the track.
It’s got me going fr00dle mode, there’s nothing I can do. We break it down, the bridge pouring out over guitar and a violin, the band battling back to full strength and my oh my it’s beautiful.
Forever - Noah Pope
Oh goodness. Such an honest and loving song to share. Vulnerable and flawed, but trusting his partner, learning what love is and can be in real time. Sonically it’s a stunner, Pope is such a good musician, but really I’m just swirling in the final lyric. Such a gem, and has really buried itself in my brain.
I am, you are, forever.
Hours Off - mer marcum
Ayyyy!!! Hours Off is a long awaited release for me, I’ve gotten the pleasure of hearing it in earlier forms and even just the teasers on tiktok I’ve been eager to get this one and mer marcum absolutely delivers.
A beautiful western feel, bits of synths dotting the outside of the track. As she catches herself losing control, the song does too, spiraling and launching into the second section. Drums ripping, the whole thing feeling like cozy chaos as marcum stands strong in the center, the layers of vocals all around are subtle but still so powerful. And just like that the song slides back into the original shape. All of friends are in a race to get famous / i wanna tell them that they’re going places is the lyric that’s had my ear since I first heard this one, and it hits every time.
A beautiful song - so excited for all the mer marcum music to come.
11th Avenue - Maddie Jay
Oooooooweeeeeee I cannot get enough of these singles. Another, the last before the album, is here. And the hot streak continues.
It’s just so much fun from the very first second. Each sound is delightful, and they work so well together. Maddie Jay’s voice always feels so personal and manages to stay calm as the production pops and swirls. It’s such a joy!!!
The way she stretches Oh i love / oh i love / to live with my mistakes dragging out the phrase and dragging us into the next scene. Gold.
At 1:26 things flip - the guitar cutting through clean with some nice drums too, Jay at the center ready for things to get a little messier, a little more fun. I’m not shy anymore, I’m the interesting friend is such a juicy lyric, I’m loving this. Barely halfway through there’s so much to savor. And you better savor because there’s a dance break in the back half that has me jumping up and down. Can’t wait for the album.
You Just Keep Living - Maisyn
New Maisyn EP!!! New Maisyn EP!!!!
It’s really been a joy to be a Maisyn fan over the years. Her music always offers such worthwhile insight, finding ways to pull out meaning from hard moments and share them in both a relatable and learn-from-able way.
This one is no different, of course. Opening over a night scene, crickets guiding our way, bright guitars lighting the sides of the song. Maisyn right in the middle, so dialed in from the very first note. The melody is magic, her tone so good at every note, perfect delivery, it’s incredible. At the 30 second mark things start to build, a swelling cello sound, a bit of urgency from Maisyn too, flutes to catch us on the high end. The whole moment building and releasing into a nasty little guitar solo. We find Maisyn on the other side again, learning how to live and how to keep living through the toughest moments. Rebuilding from heartbreak, continuing on even when it doesn’t seem possible. It’s touching and all too real.
The songs starts to build back up again, and peaks with Maisyn standing tall, letting that You just keep living!! Ring out from the mountain top. Reassuring all of us that better days are coming, we will get through it. At 2:40 the group vocals slide in and it’s all just so sweet and beautiful. A big ol’ hug from a friend. It’s a special one, lessons learned the hard way, shared generously alongside a sick sick band.
John & Lydia - Medium Build
Listen I don’t even think I can talk about it ok?
did i grow up into someone you like… would we have been friends if we were born at the same time?
A song about parents, about growing up, about loving people even though we’re all imperfect. It really crushes me to listen to, and frankly I’m tearing up just at the thought of feeling all of this live too. I can’t wait.
But more than everything, I’m fucking loving the continued exploration/evolution of Medium Build’s sound. Fresh off an emo smash hit, we get this one as part of the EP. The front half is so big and dancey, I know The Killers are jealous as hell they didn’t write this. And as we break to the piano later on MB starts off in a jazz club confessional, before finding the chords again and it feels festival-level massive. All so stunning, so excited about this whole EP too. Please give it a listen, I’m sure I’ll write more soon.
Flash in the Pan - Wallice
Continuing to grow with every release, it’s really a thrill to get a new album from Wallice. This one in particular has this contemporary timelessness. The horns pouring out over the fresh drum kit. Wallice’s voice is just stunning. Elegant, smooth, entirely unique.
As the song blossoms beyond the verse, the harsher edges of her voice deliver such power over the chugging guitars and piano. Beautiful and emotional, I really love it. We repeat the scenes again, each feeling more elevated and meaningful the second time around. The production is mind-blowing from like 2:20 and on, imo, - I guess all of this is imo? - full of little flourishes that pay off tenfold. The whole song climaxing with so much force. I really am obsessed.
Track 12 off the new record I can’t wait to listen to the whole thing more.
you in everything - Oranje Space
He’s back!!! I’m so excited about the music Oranje Space is making. Dialing in on this gorgeous sound, willing to push that sound further at the same time. His voice is so good, ugh, just listen to how dreamy it all feels at 0:48.
The production meets him in stride at every turn, he sounds so at home here. I love the beautiful guitars that sneak in at the 1:30 mark, giving the song this welcomed thinness (?) before falling back into the deep end. The whole thing is big and lush and heavy. But not heavy in an overpowering way, heavy in a sucking-you-into-this-world way. Love and stoked for all that’s to come in the OSU.
watering can - emory
After debuting with one of my favorite songs this year, double dog, emory is back with another stunner. Auto-tuned vocals step gently over that soft acoustic guitar. It feels like a dream, the synths wind up and begin and the dream only gets more surreal.
At the minute mark, we cut the tape, the bass and bending guitar setting the scene with a toy piano adding so much context and delight. All the while, emory is absolutely crushing.
This is all you wanted / look babe you got it / im pulling threads till they’re knotted / i’ll keep pulling
so go right ahead / fill me right up / like im a watering can / i’ll pour it all out for us / i’ll be your number one fan.
Ugh it’s so good. Tender and heartfelt writing delivered so beautifully. As the synth strings play us out, it’s just so sick to see this other side of emory’s music, leaning into the writing, so much to enjoy.
Cheers my friends,
Max