Welcome back to Top8 where the 8's are topped by the 9's*. 

As I write this, I have successfully eluded CPD for the better part of a week in my effort to "Notta Regatta" – nobody better drop a dime on this bitch. It's too hot. I didn't like the bands. I am morally opposed to the Fourth of July. And I am annoyed with out of towners crowding into my neighborhood. If you had a good time, I am happy for you. I am glad they have this thing for you. It's not for me.

This has been another week where there was just too much music for one edition of Top8, which is a good problem to have. Grill up a veggie dog and settle in for the music. Send your favorite toppings to wtsq.org/contact

*I know I made this joke like a year ago. I'm not sorry, but you can ask for your money back.

Kae Tempest - I Stand on the Line

I have been a fan of Kae Tempest from the jump. Since before they came out as trans. Back then, I had no idea that we had something in common from the start. Well, that's not completely true – I know he was really into Shakespeare. Tempest has consistently released tracks that vibed with me from a lyrical or emotional standpoint, but this is the first time that I am aware of that he's released specifically trans music. Tracks like this are hit or miss for me. I honestly don't need something to be specifically about my identity in order to appreciate it. Most of the tracks that find their way to Top8 are not about queer topics. 

That said, this new Kae Tempest record is a different matter. The album is called "SelfTitled" and it heavily features songs that focus on trans topics and the experience of being trans. Maybe it's because I have been a fan for so long, or maybe it's just because he expresses some things in a way that few people really have before.

I heard "I Stand on the Line" while I was grocery shopping and listening to some new music. This line hit me like a truck: "If you wait for the right time, you'll never be ready / But sometimes every cell in my skin feels too heavy". Next thing you know, I am cryin' in the club except the club is the Bigley Piggly Wiggly. Great lyrics or poetry tells you something about yourself that you haven't quite been able to say yourself. "I'd known it forever, but I tried to stop knowing."

Tempest is dramatic and defiant here. The genuine terror that trans people feel that coming out will cost us everything. And there's plenty of reasons to be afraid. The current administration clearly wants to kill us. If we leave our bubbles we risk violence or worse. And yet, my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. Like Kae Tempest says, "I just want to go back, put it all on the deck / And say, "Child, just keep going, keep drawing your breath." If you don't get it, maybe spend some time with this song, or even the whole album.

Or don't. It doesn't really matter. We've always been here and we're not going anywhere.

Oxis - Long Sardine x Mr. Brightside

This is a weird one. WTSQ's Lou clued me into Oxis and I was instantly hooked. 

"Long Sardine" is a glitchy, synthy song that some of you will absolutely hate. It's built around this repeating glitched loop that sounds like someone tried to kill themselves by dropping an old Casio keyboard into a bathtub but instead got a fucking bop, albeit a sorta depressed on Then, about a week later, I hear this absolute stroke of genius. Oxis has taken the same basic glitchy loop and dropped the lyrics from The Killer's Mr. Brightside on top. And I cannot stop listening to this. Insanely, they also did the same thing with MGMT's classic "Kids". The result in that case is still pretty great, but Mr. Brightside is better. Oxis is awesome, make sure to give their originals a spin too.

Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess - I Wanna Leave

I have always loved Emmalea's music and I've featured her on Top8 before. She's from right here in WV, so I have followed her music career more or less first hand. I think every time I hear something new from Emmalea I think – "damn, she's really hit her stride now." And every time she comes back with something better. "I Wanna Leave" is no different. The band has found a heavy grunge with a little riotgrrrl — think of bands like The Gits or L7. This sounds like a song you could catch an elbow to the eye to if you caught it live. The lyrics are a furious assault on a patriarchy which seems like it's got us by the throat right now. But that's why we have songs like this. There's plenty of fight left in us. 

Sweet Tooth - Smile

Sweet Tooth plays a shoegazy alt rock and they play it very well. "Smile" comes in with the contrast I always think of with them – this buzzy, crunchy guitar and a soft, shoegazy, reverbed vocal buried in the mix. This is another excellent single from Sweet Tooth. They have really only put out a handful of songs at this point, so I am really excited to hear more. 

BTW – I know I've said this before, but Beckley is making us look bad these days. Keep Beckley bands on your radar. Cool stuff happening there.

Ethel Cain - Nettles

I could say that Ethel Cain is the queer Lana Del Rey, but then I'd have to contend with the seemingly intentionally difficult, and extremely un-LDR album "Perverts" from earlier this year. Or with her STUNNING and transformative (possibly life changing) slowgaze cover of American Football's "For Sure" which I reviewed here last year.

(An aside: Don't get me wrong, if Attention Please was still on the air, I'd have played every track on that weirdass "Perverts" album by now. Still, it did seem like it was made to alienate some of the filthy casuals. It had way more in common with Grouper than Lana. Many of the tracks didn't even really resemble songs in a conventional sense, just a lot of droning noise – perfect for Attention Please.)

In any event, Ethel Cain has a NEW album coming out in August titled "Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You" which seems to be a return to previous form for her. The first two singles delve back into the southern gothic quasi-americana that a lot of her music has grown from. On "Nettles" she sweetens the track with fiddle and pedal steel. Something about this track makes me think of watching the sun set in on a summer's day in the rural parts of the world. It rolls along without being in any kind of hurry, but still gets there in the end. "To love me is to suffer me." Yeah. I get that.

Risley - Breadcrumbs

Risley doesn't sound like the name of a band I'd like. I almost didn't even click on it for that reason. Rizz-leee. WTF is that?

Well, what they are is a pretty great indie postpunk act out of Portland. I caught their KEXP performance and was impressed. "Breadcrumbs" has catchy swirly guitars and dancy drums. And honestly, at this very moment I have become a little self-conscious about how often I just slap a Y on the end of things in order to make them descriptive. That's not Risley's fault. Check out this track and their live set on KEXP.

Alex G - June Guitar

Alex G fans are always big music fans. It's not hard to see why the guy appeals to record store / community radio types. There's an intricate, meticulous quality to his work. He's also always been a whole-album type of artist. Not just a singles artist. I imagine him working in the studio like Brian Wilson and taking weeks to perfect a single sound. "June Guitar" is the second single released ahead of the forthcoming "Headlights" (the previous single, "Afterlife", is also worth a spin). To me, this is a great example of why I like Alex G. It has the careful, clockwork precision to all these moving pieces in the song that I love in his work. It almost feels wrong to call these songs, they are compositions.

Lightheaded - Me and Amelia Fletcher

Twee will never die. But Amelia Fletcher is one of the people responsible for it to start with. From bands like Talulah Gosh to more recent ones like Swansea Sound, she's been a cornerstone of this, and associated genres. So it makes sense why someone in a modern band with heavy twee/C86 influences would write a song about wanting to start a band with her. This is that song. And it's a truly wonderful jangling, lo-fi tune that is not quite 90 seconds long. This is a fine gateway into the band's other stuff. The album "Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming!" is quite worth your time.

And this week's extra innings, some NOT NEW music that just has been living in my brain recently.

Smashing Pumpkins - Plume

Talulah Gosh - Beatnik Boy

Natalia Lafourcade - Hasta la Raiz

And a playlist with the whole damn thing.

Thank you for reading and listening. 

-emily