Canned Dragons

One of the few newsletters I pay to subscribe to is Spruce Island from Orthodox Christian writer Michael Warren Davis. Davis is packing it in after a send-off entitled “Death to Substack.” Davis minces no words in his antipathy towards the platform. As someone who writes on matters of faith, he’s able to easily target the content that dominates that niche on Substack.

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On Liquorice, Hatchie makes another strong effort marrying contemporary pop-style vocals with shoegaze instrumentals. It’s clear the musician has been listening to a lot of Spooky-era Lush along with Sabrina Carpenter. Oh, and she loves her reverb! The record is drenched in it, and it doesn’t break with the traditional dreampop standards. The approach is especially effective on the title track, where the guitars have an orchestral quality when supporting the chorus.

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When Get Up by the Postal Service dropped, few expected the kind of impact it would have. My brother and sister saw the sort of supergroup at a small club just before their popularity spiked. When someone wanted to trace the origins of the group’s sound, checking out Dntel, Postal Service member Jimmy Tamborello’s main project, made sense. But a closer musical cousin was the work Tamborello did as part of Figurine.

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I took me a while to find Electr-o-pura on Amazon, due to the unnecessary hyphens. While I may have my issues with Amazon, it was worth the search to play a cool 12 bones for the disc. This is an album that dropped when I was perhaps most into indie rock. I borrowed the CD from a friend who lived in the same dorm. Songs "Decora" and "Tom Courtenay" immediately worked their magic on me.

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Belle and Sebastian first came to my attention when The Boy With The Arab Strap was released. By that time, they already had one highly regarded album out, but music hype traveled slowly in the early internet days (and you had to buy music to even give it a listen). I was told they were a band I would like, but my sisters would probably like them more. I did quite enjoy their second album.

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The Beach Boys “All I Wanna Do,” from the uneven 1970 album Sunflower (sorry Brian - RIP) is widely regarded as the beginning of the dream pop sound. The thick reverb and delay along with wistful romantic longing set the sonic prototype in place. Reverie by Letting Up Despite Great Faults sits firmly within the template to the now decades-old genre. I had been aware of Letting Up Desppite Great Faults for years, but for whatever reason never listened to them.

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A few days ago, I received a plea in my usual email from the media outlet Tangle.

The last six months have been a difficult time for media outlets. Overwhelmed by the news, many readers and listeners are tuning out. Those who are staying up to date are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence round-ups to get their news, which has caused website traffic to fall.

I feel bad about the situation that Isaac Saul, who founded Tangle, and his crew find themselves in. They have a publication that does a wonderful job balancing perspectives on the news of the day. They are trustworthy and thorough. Yet, I find myself deciding again and again not to upgrade to a paid subscription when I consider the option.

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Zachary Brown writes for the Verge about a new game/utililty from Hank Green. The premise of the Focus Friend app is sort of like an updated Tamagotchi for phone addicts. You are the virtual caretaker of a character like Billy Bean King, a bean who can only work to upgrade its environment and wardrobe (it knits) if you put down your phone. As it turns out, helping furnish a virtual bean’s lo-fi room is exactly what I needed.

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