MMM with Short Frenzy & an NPR Tiny Desk List of Fav Favs 🎶
i have NOT been able to stop listening to this Short Frenzy song....
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 and add to the MMM playlist. Please consider supporting independent music and music journalism(?) here today <3
Hey everyone!!
Last Friday, our pals in the band, Hiding Places (via their label HATETOQUIT) released an epic 55 artist compilation, Merciless Accelerating Rhythms - Artists United for a Free Palestine.
It’s wonderfully inspiring to see artists continuing to stand up for good in this world, and use their music to support in any way they can. All proceeds from sales of this comp will be donated directly to Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) and Palestine Legal. Please support if you can!!!
This week has been a week. But, spring is here, May is here - the optimists’s season, the optimist’s month. A moment where everything feels like it’s about to bloom, to change towards something better.
In my personal life it feels the same, a new wind filling my dang sails. It’s moments like these where music really digs in, and this week’s pick has done just that. Soundtracking this past week along with some other great songs in the ATOD section below. I hope you enjoy.
Short Frenzy - Jeremy
I follow a schedule over here, I’ve pigeon-holed myself into it by putting a damn day of the week in the name of the newsletter. But sometimes, I just can’t wait. That’s the feeling I’ve had about this song, ever since Friend Of The ‘Sletter and incredible artist, Adriana McCassim reminded me to check this record out. I recognized the name and the art from Instagram, but couldn’t recall listening yet (even though I had somehow liked two songs already…). Regardless, I dove in and I haven’t come back up for air yet. Hawk-eyed listeners will already heard this on the All The Other Days playlist, but my GOODNESS does it deserve the full MMM treatment. Let’s dive in.
Opening on a gorgeous little drum loop, surrounded by the room, subtle sounds adding texture, maybe a little sniffle as the rest of the band settles in. The guitar is next, a perfectly messy acoustic guitar dancing through a couple chords, a distorted fuzz underneath it. The bass completes the moment, rounding out that bottom end. A sick first thirty seconds and we haven’t even gotten to the best parts yet!!
Joined by some soft piano, Short Frenzy steps to the mic. Instantly this Jeremy character is a lovable one, looking out for SF in a hard moment. The moment is a memory, transporting back to school - I just love that line All the boys looked cool and I looked like a freak. It’s so charming. Such a relatable kid feeling, wanting so bad to be like the others, to be liked by others, to fit in, to know yourself and feel confident. It’s the emotion that’s so quickly made this a song I can’t stop playing.
But it’s not just the lyrics themselves, but the structure that is intoxicating too. This internal rhyme scheme (ok I’m suddenly a poet????) gives each line an urgency and momentum, it makes the last lyric landing out of the rhyme act as such a relief.
The band offers another version of this tension and release as we move forward. Jeremy I was so angry at the way my body didn’t move like yours. The little drum fill letting the whole band crash down around it. Again in the next line, the nerf gun knocking him down to the floor, where he will find my jaw because good god what a melody!!! That floor landing on such a beautiful, unexpected note.
But look alive because there’s no time to wait, the band getting fuller and fuzzier. They rock out for a few bars, the messiness blurring the lines between instruments, but that jangling tambourine cutting through it all, feeling surprisingly intimate? Wakes me up and reminds me we’re in the middle of a song not a sound bath.
The second verse paints a vision, a beautiful one, with a quiet synth buoying it all. The dream is so sweet, so pure, you can hear a little smirk through the singing. It falls back to the chorus, this time the harmonies feel way more present. Giving SF some support in this tough memory. Again the nerf gun kicks it all off, the band launching even bigger and heavier and more stunning than ever. The moment seeming to grow onward forever, finding new heights with each repetition. Until it can’t go further, letting those last notes fade.
This is track two from Short Frenzy’s album, A Driving Tour of Southern California’s Backroads which came out less than a month ago. It’s a really special record, the kind where I seem to find a new favorite song, favorite moment, each time through. Short Frenzy is such a wonderful writer and story teller, with stunning production from Ryan Pollie across the album, the two making some incredible music. Loving this.
Follow Short Frenzy on Instagram // on Spotify
NPR Tiny Desk Fan Favorite Favorites
Something a little different this week! NPR put out their 45-performance deep list of fav submissions to their annual Tiny Desk concert. It’s a call for a fan vote, so as a fan I went ahead and watched em all and here are my favorites.
nellie
Last on the playlist first in our hearts! Candidly, I wouldn’t know about this entire fan fav situation if it weren’t for nellie posting about it last week. I am a fan, and even… a friend??? Bias aside, I love this performance. nellie has such a smooth voice, moving so easily from soft low notes to the strong high notes matched so well with her guitar tone. Some gorgeous runs in there - most mornings in verse two??? c’mon!! A touching song of isolation and trying to understand how we show up and who we show up as in each others worlds. The final verse is genius too.
Brian Brown
As I started watching these, Brian Brown’s was the next that caught my ear. A clean band gets moving, Brown with the voice of an angel my goodness. It’s so so rich. Mesmerizing. Then takes off rapping, and it’s crazy he’s just as good here too. Sliding from scene to scene like it’s nothing. And back to the band - so sick. Each play their part perfect, each add so much to the track. The final minute just gets more and more fun, some shine for everyone.
Cleo Reed
I’ve been a Cleo Reed fan for a minute, their 2023 Root Cause was a sick record, full of inventive sounds, I have come back to it often. The opening/title track is a stunner. All to say I was stoked to see their video come up. Again a killer band, shoutout the drummer Dom Gervais whose opening groove I can’t even comprehend really.
SWIM! is a fun one, really taking new shapes in each new moment, giving Reed so much space to show off what they’re capable of. It reminds me a bit of like Saba’s CARE FOR ME - unique flows, a freedom to explore every way a track could feel, all with a locked in jazzy band.
Avangelia
‘this is my rnb banjo song about anxiety’ reads the video description and obviously that was enough for me. But Avangelia delivers on the concept. WHAT a voice, rich and round and full. Falling in this lower register that really pulls me in. The banjo feels right at home here too, like it’s always been a mainstay of R&B music. A mind-blowing final section, the band bold and brave with these progressions, bgv’s perfectly staying the course, Avangelia showing off one more time. It’s a winner.
Eldraco Price
Just hit play. You’ll get it. A stunning song, Price’s voice wild and loving. A crazy band absolutely living up to the highly stylized video. Another band just crushing from start to finish along with three FANTASTIC background singers here. Beautiful throughout but the final run Price takes is just out of this world, oof what a finale, what a tune.
Alejandro Aranda
Listen, this dude is nuts. I knew that, you knew that, but just gotta appreciate a king every chance you get.
Julianna Zachariou
Ok I’m going rogue. This one wasn’t on the list (snubbed smh) but it was my favorite submission this year. I’ve been a JZ stan for a while and this one is such a treat. The tender intimacy of this performance is palpable. The simplicity - quiet keys, unique tone from the acoustic - really let Zachariou shine. In songwriting and performance. The writing is nuts, ‘Digital Paper’ reads the empty kindness from brands and companies all over the internet, who ‘every year remember my birthday’ but of course don’t have much more to offer than a 15% off coupon. It’s a loneliness that is relentlessly pushed upon us, 20 emails in an hour / before I get in the shower every morning. We have no say in the matter, regardless of how many times i hit unsubscribe.
But the performance is so human, so real, so lovely. Her voice wonderful throughout, that run on life is tough is unbelievably good. The two coming together to share the piano there at the end, an eager dog wanting in on the fun. All feeling like a nice reminder of how connection should really feel.
Last Week on All The Other Days:
NEW PLAYLIST ART - BIG SHOUT OUT NAT NICK FOR ANOTHER PERFECT COVER. Anyways, a ridiculous week of music. Started off with this amazing new one from georgee:
Aside from that, I’ve been loving the debut single from redbrd ft. Mei Semones - a perfect match. We’re lucky to hear something this beautiful. I’ve also been rinsing the Hovvdy record, and it’s fucking me up a bit. Same is true for the new Kacy Hill album. I’ve been unable to stop playing it. And when I need to reach for something else, Dua Lipa’s RADICAL OPTIMISM is soothing the soul. These Walls is crazy, and I do love how she leans into the live instrumentation. A cool new era for one of the coolest people on the planet. Wait also the new Maddie Jay song…. insane. More on that soon.
Ok what a week. See you next Monday.
Max