no context just vibes vol 2: leisure as extreme sport

Welcome to another edish of the I Enjoy Music newsletter. To preview the format of the newsletter, in an Axios breakin'-it-down style, we have:

a little bit of writing around a new-to-me song by an unfamiliar artist
(last time I did that with Frank Lenz's "Azidoazide")

new music from past I Enjoy Music featurees

Blog Posts of the Recent Past

are we down? ok great...

no context just vibes: Zimmer90, "What Love Is"

This hit my inbox with the subject line "a sonic aperol spritz" to describe it, which, as synesthetic comparisons go, was both accurate and alluring...my sister used to work in wine and spirits PR and was part of the team that seeded the rise of Aperol Spritz thru various media placements back in like 2014, several years before the craze truly took flight...this campaign resulted in situations like the time when my other sister and I took the subway to midtown at like 5 in the morning to appear in the background of a Fox News segment on spritzes. Anything for a shot at stardom!

"What Love Is" is definitely a pool party type of song, destined to soundtrack miscellaneous summer fun, from the gently pulsating disco bass, to the elegant smattering of bongo-type drums, to the calm phrasing of the romantic/existential question in the chorus. Listening to it made me think of the concept of pool party music in general—my friend Matthew does this playlist concept called Place Series, where he provides soundtracks for specific circumstances of bodies and spaces, and the one for pool parties is incredible—and how Pool Music, as opposed to Beach Music or Summer Music, requires a specific quality somewhere between leisurely and energized. Something that inspires you to very mildly move, whether in yr chair or floating on back in starfish mode, but not too strenuously, lest you get a cramp. Fluid but contained...sort of like a pool.

Have you seen the Stadium Swim® experience? It's a pool amphitheater at a Vegas casino where you can lounge in a watery area while watching the big game on a large screen. It's not for me (I don't really care for televised sports, if I'm going to be engaging in sports, I want to be there and eating as large of a hot dog as they have for sale) but I'm fascinated by the idea...lounging is an extreme sport in some ways, this just brings the sports energy to the lounging. What happens if you drop a buffalo wing in the water? Ha, ha...water wings.

Zimmer90's What Love Is EP is out June 28th.

catchin' up

NYC duo Castle Black last hit the webpages of I Enjoy Music when they shared their Three Music Thingz...

Three Music Thingz with Castle Black

Holy moley, it’s another rendition of Three Music Thingz, the blogseries where I ask musicians for three thingz that are essential to their music-making. Up on deck today are Castle Black, a two-person band (Leigh Celent on guitar and vox, Joey Russo on le drums) who represent an important concept:

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

...and now their first full-length album, The Highway at Night, is out in the world! Punchy-dynamic-eclectic pure rock 'n' roll baby!! Listen to it on Spotify, or Bandcamp below.

The Highway at Night, by Castle Black

11 track album

Castle BlackBandcamp New & Notable Feb 29, 2024

Victor Nawebone did a Three Music Thingz a while back to commemorate his experimental electronic album Cocuy...

Three Music Thingz with Victor Nawebone

Ooh it’s a fresh new edition of Three Music Thingz, the blogseries where I ask musicians for three thingz that are essential to their musicianship. Today we have Victor Nawebone, a Venezuelan recording artist who usually records experimental rock music under the project name El Café Atómico, and who last

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

...and last month he put out an album as El Café Atómico—some "Surrealismo tropical alucinógeno" (hallucinogenic tropical surrealism) called Tourneur 43.

Tourneur 43, by El Café Atómico

15 track album

Cactus Frank/El Café AtómicoCactus Frank/El Café Atómico

And 5-Track, whom I grilled via DM interview for some tasty Tales From The Stu'...

guitar part sudoku: an interview with 5-Track

Music does not exist in a vacuum. People make music. People make music in places. Sometimes with other people. And I find this all very interesting. I first got linked to 5-Track—Seattle-based guitarist and singer in Trash Panda Go Kart, bassist in Beyond Captain Orca!—thru friend-of-the-blog Mira from

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

...has a fizzy new single out with her "indiepopraccoonrock" band Trash Panda Go Kart called "Diamonds (2023)".

Diamonds (2023), by Trash Panda Go Kart

track by Trash Panda Go Kart

Trash Panda Go KartTrash Panda Go Kart

MUSIC!!!!

what happened on I Enjoy Music recently

Link aggregation station.

Did you catch Wikipedia Surfing Week with Harmony Woods? A great alternative to relying on the algorithm for finding new music is to simply use the Wikipedia random page generator to explore the musical unknown. See what she dug up!!

wikipedia surfing: Los Lobos, ‘Colossal Head’

How to find new-to-you music? Let Mr. Spotify decide for you? Read the Pitched Fork? Ask your mom what she’s vibing on these days? Give up and let autoplay take the wheel? How about trying something different...and exciting...that uses the power of the internet and the volatile magic

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

wikipedia surfing: Električni Orgazam, ‘Braćo i sestre’

We’re back with another day of Wikipedia surfing with Harmony Woods—aka pasting “Special:Random” in the Wikipedia search bar (when I just typed that, the Ghost blogging interface tried to correct it to a dice emoji, which was nice 🎲) and clicking until you see a music-related page, then exploring

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

wikipedia surfing: Foreign Legion

Surf’s up, one...more...time! [“Wipeout” drum solo begins] We’re wrapping up our week of Wikipedia surfing with Harmony Woods (for the still-uninitiated...that’s pasting “Special:Random” in the Wikipedia search bar and clicking until you see a page related to music, then listening to the music)...Mexican-American roots rock.

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

Elsewhere on the blog: Three Music Thingz continues apace with features of Cigar Cigarette and comets near me, Charli XCX put out Brat and I considered the tricky underground-vs-commercial aspect of her career, I wrote about Tavi Gevinson's Taylor Swift zine, I saw Joan As Police Woman in a très intimate setting, and I interviewed artist Nico Loreto about making extremely cool art about pop stars...it's all linked below...

it’s a big club and you’re in it: the long road to Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’

I try to avoid feeling too parasocial about my pop stars but I have to say it: I’m proud of Charli XCX. She must be feeling incredible right now in the wake of the release of Brat. A spiky Roman phalanx of fans flooding their social media timelines with memes

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

Three Music Thingz with Cigar Cigarette

Why hello there, it’s another rendition of Three Music Thingz, the blogseries where I ask musicians for three thingz that are essential to their music-making. Today we have Cigar Cigarette! A Los Angeles-based project led by Chris McLaughlin, Cigar Cigarette just released their EP Natural History and it’s firmly in

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

tavi gevinson, taylor swift, and seizing the zines of production

I read an absolutely wild piece of music writing last week. Tavi Gevinson, original Girl Blogger and founder of influential online magazine Rookie, self-published a zine about Taylor Swift in April called Fan Fiction. A few outlets covered this event—Vulture interviewed Gevinson about it, and across the NY Mag

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

live show report: Joan As Police Woman

I got a press invite to an interesting show last week—Joan As Police Woman (the alias of singer-songwriter Joan Wasser) was playing an intimate gig at the Cha Cha Lounge in Silver Lake. This invite was intriguing to me for three reasons: 1) I love a gig invite (I

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

Three Music Thingz with comets near me

Holy moley, it’s another rendition of Three Music Thingz, the blogseries where I ask musicians for three thingz that are essential to their music-making. Today we have comets near me! A self-described “tweemo” duo based in San Jose, CA, comets near me just put out a cozy four-track EP called

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

behind the pop art with @fkanico

My timeline really delivered last week—amid a zesty wash of lime-green Brat memes, I witnessed a standout tribute to Charli XCX...in the form of a sculptural reference to the hedonistic track “Everything is romantic”...oh my god, it’s JESUS CHRIST ON A PLASTIC SIGN!!! The artist slinging these

i enjoy musicMolly Mary O’Brien

THANKS FOR READING I ENJOY MUSIC

LEAVE IT ALL ON THE FIELD THIS MONTH

LOVE, MOLLY