Heartbreaking Bravery

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Tag: Spiritual Cramp

June’s First Half: Honorable Mentions (Songs, Music Videos, Full Streams)

The first half of June carried plenty of surprises. This month has been, notably, dominated by major hip-hop artists and included the release of several major records that have the capacity to hijack year-end lists. Those releases have never been the focal point of this site and this won’t be the post where that changes. Every item on this list, as always, deserves more attention than it’ll receive. Following this list, there will be a few other key releases that get highlighted but these songs, clips, and records deserve all the support they can get, including the below listings and anyone willing to click their links. Enjoy.

SONGS:

Rob Dickson, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Dead Sullivan, Henrik Appel, Cuesta Loeb, Protomartyr, Amos and Spencer, Fleabite, Thin Lips, Dumb, The Molochs, Spencer Radcliffe, Kevin Krauter, Bleeth, Everything By Electricity, Scattered Clouds, Susie Scurry, MOURN, The Rareflowers, Clean Spill, Guts Club, Darren Jessee, Orions Belte, Late Bloomer, Laurel Halo, The Ophelias, Freedom Baby, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Alexander BIggs, Manatree, Runtom Knuten, Manchester Orchestra, Sun June, Angelo De Augustine, Ancestors, ShitKid, Icecapades, Deafheaven, Baby Blue, Frida, Cigarettes After Sex, R+R=NOW, Van Common, Hana Vu, The Dirty Nil, Stalagmites, Wild Nothing, Birdtalker, Jon Spencer, Two Meters, Claw Marks, El Ten Eleven, Birds In Row, Color Tongue, serpentwithfeet, Estrons, Echo Courts, Lazyeyes, Death Grips, Mom Jeans, Gold Star, and a massive offering from Ben Seretan (which accompanies a behemoth multimedia art project that’s worth tracking).

MUSIC VIDEOS:

Clearance, Strange Relations, Death Bells, LIFE, oso oso, The Essex Green, White Woods, Devon Welsh, NEEDS, Thirsty Curses, lemin., Spiritualized, Cold Fronts, Empath, Dirty Projectors, Anna Calvi, VedeTT, The Beths, Cornelia Murr, King Princess, The Fur Coats, Stringer, The Due Diligence, NOTHING, Howard, White Denim, Animal House, and Sad Baxter.

FULL STREAMS: 

Miranda Winters, Petal, Spiritual Cramp, Deux Trois, Dark Thoughts, Dos Santos, Some Gorgeous Accident, Johnny Conqueroo, Tancred, Blushh, Juliana Daugherty, Giant Peach, Hala, Anthony Green, Two Meters, Cold Meat, June Gloom/Rock Solid, CASCINE and Stadiums & Shrines’ Dreams compilation, Palberta, Bloody Knives, Will Henriksen, Surf Dads, God Bless Relative, GRLWood, and Ana Egge.

Adrian Teacher and The Subs – Pop Medicine (Stream)

Continuing on with the recap of the past week, it feels important to touch on some excellent songs from the likes of Gladie, Von K, Spiritual Cramp, Language, LUMPAccüDude York, William Carlos Whitten, Richard Nuclear, and Jon Hassell before getting to this post’s featured event: Adrian Teacher and The Subs’ inspired “Pop Medicine”, a career highlight for a band that’s thrived in the shadows.

Clocking in at under 100 seconds, “Pop Medicine” is one of Adrian Teacher and The Subs’ shorter songs but it seems destined to linger in listener’s memories for much, much longer. Opening with a riff that immediately brings to mind Joanna Gruesome‘s “Secret Surprise“, “Pop Medicine” goes on to reveal another distinct similarity with that song in that it might strike some as saccharine at first blush before revealing a much darker identity.

In this case, the narrative of the song — which is as bright and energetic as anything in the Adrian Teacher and The Subs’ discography — takes an absolutely heartbreaking dive into the narrator’s struggle with watching the progression of a friend’s descent into cancer before realizing that they may have to accept a tragic inevitability. Tracing the process from getting high, establishing a carefree outset, to a devastating confrontation with an incredibly painful reality in the song’s final verse, “Pop Medicine” packs an emotional gut-punch that’s enough to leave anyone reeling.

It’s the addictive sugar-rush nature of the music that makes “Pop Medicine” both bleaker and more understandable, acting as a counterweight that outlines the protagonist’s strides towards resiliency in the face of the unthinkable. A tragedy in multiple parts, “Pop Medicine”, asides from being an incredible (and highly addictive) composition, is a potent reminder that even when things are at their absolute bleakest, there is still life that surrounds us and wills us forward. Not a lot of songs can live up to a testament as lofty as that one but “Pop Medicine” does it with an empathetic smile.

Listen to “Pop Medicine” below and pick up Anxious Love here.