It has been a solid year of music - a first time in a while I struggled to get everything that I wanted to share with folks in a list of twenty. Ragana’s Desolation’s Flower is a gut punch. It transcends genre - I like to think of them as post-black metal doom. Fuzzy. Heavy. Chaos. Calm. Desolation’s Flower is the epitome of this year for me - full of strife and heartache and yet the calm is the reprieve from it all - the much needed self-care as resistance to get through the drone of the sick sad world. I had the honor of seeing them this summer at the House of Blues in Chicago. It was the hottest day of the year, the kind of day where either you want your clothes to melt off or become one with them. Walking into the show with the oppressive heat, the chaos of a late babysitter - I felt the end of days was near. Ragana’s show, their music, affirmed all the emotions swirling around in my head and yet gave peace and acceptance for what the day threw my way and for what is to come. The yin and yang of their instrumentation and voices is a call for community, togetherness, and finding your people.
RAGANA - Desolation's Flower
XWEAPONX/WORLD OF PLEASURE - Weapon of Pleasure
JEFF ROSENSTOCK - Hellmode
MALE TEARS - Krypt
SINCERE ENGINEER - Cheap Grills
JANELLE MONÁE - The Age Pleasure
SOFT KILL - Metta World Peace
BLOOD RUNS COLD - s/t
MAC DEMARCO - Five Easy Hot Dogs
SUNAMI - s/t (LP)
ICE SPICE - Like..?
CHAINED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN - Obession Destruction
BIG BOY - Spring Promo 2023
FIDDLEHEAD - Death is Nothing to Us
MOVE BHC - Black Radical Love
POWER ALONE - Nothingness
KILLER MIKE - Michael
MILITARIE GUN - Life Under the Gun
DIVIDE AND DISSOLVE - Systemic
YAYA BEY- Exodus the North Star