Welcome back to Top8. When I wrote that just now, I thought of it like, "well, come back to Top8" like I am pleading with you to come back and give our love just one more chance. 

In the past week, I have barely left the apartment and every time I did I felt like there was a god and he hated me. This heat is just too much for me. I know I bitch and moan about this a lot, but good lord, I cannot think of anything else. And this will probably be the coolest summer of the rest of my life. If you're one of these lunatics driving around in a truck the size of the trailer I grew up in, I want you to know that I blame you personally for all this. 

Send your favorite picks for staying cool in the summer to wtsq.org/contact. I won't say what the front runner is, but it involves a popsicle, a bath towel, and an open mind. 

Music has been in great shape recently. So much so that I just couldn't get everything into one playlist. I am throwing all the rest into a bonus overflow playlist called "Good Music for Bad People". There will be a link at the bottom. Also, never forget to check out Lou's New Music Monday playlist.

Deftones - My Mind is a Mountain

I had no idea this was happening. I just fired up the old Spotify to wildly underpay some artists and all of a sudden there's a new Deftones. This is an interesting band. Way back when, they were, by some accounts, part of the widely despised "Nu Metal" genre. Even back then though, they really seemed like something different to me. I remember hearing "Digital Bath" on a sampler CD from Hot Topic and being completely blown away by it. More recent generations of people have focused more on the shoegaze elements that were always there in the music. Plus, enough time has passed since the 90s - 2000's that most of the animosity toward the genre has more or less dissipated. There will always be those of us who are viscerally repulsed by Limp Bizkit, but that never meant that we couldn't like Deftones. Especially not now.

"My Mind is a Mountain" is a great crushing thing with the usual slither and bite of Chino Moreno's vocals. Chino's vocals have remained surprisingly nimble and screamy. The rest of the band are all doing their jobs here. This doesn't feel like new ground for Deftones, more like a well broken in leather. I am looking forward to the full length coming out soon. 

Creekbedsore - Fiberglass (demo)

We spoke about WV's Creekbedsore way back in January of 2024. I loved those demos, so I am glad to see the band is still working on music. As I mentioned last time, this one of the bands that rose from the ashes of the beloved Choke A.D. Some of the Deftones-ish sound from that band survives into this one. "Fiberglass" is a solid 2 and a half minutes of absolute gold. Heavy as hell and with soaring vocals. This is fucking glorious. If this is what they are calling a demo, I can't even imagine what a final version would be. 

Panic Shack - Pockets

Yes, we just had Panic Shack back in March. But this song. THIS SONG. This is a song about women not having pockets on our clothes. And oh my god, I was ready for this. Some sources say that the tradition of women not getting pockets goes back to the 17th century advent of sewn in pockets worn by men who had official money types of things to do and so needed a pocket to keep shit in. Women, on the other hand, had the dishes to do, for which one does not need a pocket. As time went on, women's fashion became more and more impractical, and came to require them to carry a bag or purse around with them. In the present day, while this has changed a bit, it's still pretty common for our clothes to lack pockets. And no, I will not be citing my sources in APA and a separate references page.

Panic Shack has a punchy sound that makes me think of Amyl and The Sniffers. This is catchy, fun, but also honestly kinda pissed off punk rock. It sucks that we don't get pockets, but at least they are having a bit of fun with it.

Greg Freeman - Gallic Shrug

First of all, the gallic shrug is apparently that deal where a French person makes that sort of shrugging gesture with their shoulders and their hands up as if to say "one, two, three, not it!" It is often accompanied by the expression "buf". I tried my level best to learn French, but it did not try to learn me back. Maybe if I'd learned to shrug properly, I'd be hanging out in Paris now.

Anyway. 

'"Gallic Shrug" is an endearingly twangy song that owes a lot to late 60's Gram Parsons. It's sad and sways the way that a twangy song should. Think of Wilco in the "A.M" era. I loved the later, more esoteric Wilco stuff, but I really loved "A.M". That leaves me ready for an excellent example of something in that ball park and this whole album is just that. Freeman strikes me as someone worth paying attention to.

Jeanines - Coaxed a Storm

Jeanines are so familiar to me that I was sure I'd added them into a Top8 or an edition of Attention Please before. Records indicate otherwise. Maybe it's just that they are just so good at jangle pop. "Coaxed a Storm" is from Jeanines third album. This is a C86 style jangle. The band sounds like they could be straight out of Glasgow from the mid-80s, but are actually from Brooklyn. If you're into the C86 style, this one is for you.

Natalie Bergman - Dance

Natalie Bergman's new album "My Home Is Not In This World" is an exercise in late 60's aesthetic with a lot of nods to girl groups, French YeYe, or artists like Petula Clark. "Dance" has an effect added to the recording that mimics the surface noise of a vinyl album. It's quite charming. That said, mentioning vinyl makes me want to poke fun at how pseudo-audiophile, vinyl record fetishists are – IT HAS PRESENCE!!! Can't you hear the difference??? Anyway, this one sounds like it's bound for a Tarantino movie, and I love that.

Library Card - Art School

Obviously I am going to include a song from a band called Library Card. "Art School" is a post/egg punk bop that cruises along with a bouncy bass line that reminds me of bands like Au Pairs or The Slits. Library Card are a Dutch band out of Rotterdam. This is the kind of band who wears all black and holds flowers in their bio picture. That's really all you need to know. They have a few other singles and an EP, which means if you start listening now, you can tell them all that you were a real fan from the start. 

The Gotobeds - Mirror Writing

The Gotobeds have been kicking around PGH for over a decade at this point. If you're in the Pittsburgh area, you are more likely to know them, but really everyone should. They are out here playing solid as fuck punkish rock in the vein of bands like Titus Andronicus or Japandroids. The band brings a refreshing literacy to the album "Masterclass" and a hypnotic weirdness to the song I am featuring here – "Mirror Writing". This one has legs on it and takes its time finding the six minute mark. The guitar freakout at the end makes me think of Television. I think this is a band I want to catch live.

For this week's extra innings I decided to go way back for some classic 60's YeYe.

Francoise Hardy - Tous les garçons et les filles

France Gall - Poupée de cire, poupée de son

Jacqueline Taieb - 7 heures du matin

And a playlist with everything.

Plus bonus content.

Thanks for reading and listening,

-emily