Peach Pit – Up Granville
I had a full slate of music ready to go heading into the night. But the best laid plans of music bloggers often go awry, in this case due to a late-in-the-song guitar solo that caught my ear as I sat down to write.
Peach Pit does Mac DeMarco proud with the swinging string work here which caps off a kicked-back summer haze tune that kicks off their 2022 release, From 2 to 3.
Phoenix – North
Phoenix released a new song pretty recently but I didn’t really like it so here’s an instrumental cut off their critically acclaimed–a resounding 8.0 from Pitchfork–album from 2006, It’s Never Been Like That.
Pairs well with: hard kombucha (it’s got an edge to it but it’s good natured at its core)
Car Seat Headrest – There Must Be More Than Blood
While it seems like I’m up to my ears in good music right now, it wasn’t always this way. In the long long ago of early last week music wasn’t all that appealing. Just didn’t have the appetite and nothing sounded enticing. Except Car Seat Headrest’s “There Must Be More Than Blood.”
It could have been the steady industrial clanking percussion. Or the unifying message of the lyrics. Or the mere mention of blood amidst another bloody week of American gun violence. Probably all the above, but for a few days this song was the only thing that moved me.
Luckily for the newsletter my appetite returned in time for Monday night’s feast.
My Morning Jacket – Victory Dance (live at Austin City Limits)
True Story: I was at Whole Foods tonight (bank account groans) and a gentile older woman who was working near the vitamins section spotted me perusing (got some magnesium/zing and some reishi, if you’re wondering). She offered me a job overseeing the supplement section because apparently “men who are shopping for vitamins/supplements don’t want to ask a woman for help.” She also told me her best friend’s daughter lived in Austin.
Anyways, I’m starting a new grocery store job tomorrow and flying to Texas this weekend.
Great Lake Swimmers – Your Rocky Spine
Here’s a welcoming folk tune from Great Lake Swimmers that sort of sounds like falling asleep with Schitt’s Creek on in the background.
…And don’t forget the rest of ’em…. Old Filters frequent contributor T. Burd (or should I say Tyler B.?) shared with me the stompin’, rockin’, Rainbow Kittenish “Fizz” from *checks band name again* The Hackey Turtles… plus Charlie Parr gives modern man a stern talking to on “Rich Food and Easy Living”… finally toss a stone at any track on BRONCHO’s 2018 release Bad Behavior and you’re bound to find one of these stellar jams.
<===>The four-day workweek is getting it’s biggest empirical test everin the United Kingdom. Meanwhile,. here in the States, workers will scoff at their lazy cousins across the pond while pretending to work on Fridays.
<===>Surprise surprise, music and personality are highly entwined. Better keep reading this newsletter.
<===>A dive into the ground-game tactics of rapidly building out bike infrastructure, based on what’s worked recently in American cities.
I often say, it only takes one angry person to disrupt a well thought-out, well-designed bike project, but even thousands of people protesting a highway project can’t always stop it… That’s the imbalance that the Final Mile was designed to help correct. … The majority of people living in cities want to see this infrastructure happen, but when it does happen, we don’t get the results we want: we get disconnected networks that don’t get people where they need to go. And in the meantime, the highway machine continues unimpeded.
Kyle Wagenschutz, People for Bikes
These projects were funded by the non-profit People for Bikes and were run in Austin, Denver, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Providence. They sought to win the hearts and minds of elected officials, city bureaucrats, and the general public by fueling marketing campaigns and elbow-grease political operations. And they were highly successful.
Hopefully, cities can learn from these pilots and act without the nudging and funding of non-profits. Elected officials at the municipal level far too often cave to that one loud citizen in the public meeting who claims bike lanes will ruin their lives and business. Some well-spent marketing efforts can make that person feel heard and assure them that a protected bike lane will not bring Armageddon to Main Street.
<===>And a trade fight is brewing between American Solar and American Steel. Solar wants imports from China to be exempt due to their role in fighting climate change while Steel argues that creating such a beachhead on the tariff front will lead to an erosion of protections for steel manufacturers.
The Biden admin seems poised to side with Solar. This newsletter also sides with Solar but thinks it would be neat if we manufactured more panels Stateside.
Photography by Maam Fall @stilllyffe