Welcome to OPE!, the ranch dressing of music blogs by Brady Gerber. OPE! is a daily blog, but this weekly newsletter includes more song reviews, my favorite links of the week, and exclusive essays. My views don’t reflect my clients or the publications and brands I work with. All typos are intentional.
Well, hello there. How are you?
It’s Fool’s Spring in LA, so the sun is really out. I’m ready for it to disappear again. This is also an interesting week: Almost all my reviews are three stars. A lot of good tunes here that you may even think are great. If you need anything, I’ll still be playing Hollow Knight.
Anyway, let’s get to the dang thing. Here are this week’s links and songs.
MY FAVORITE LINKS OF THE WEEK
A survivalist teaches the basics of surviving. (The crescent moon advice is pretty cool.)
“The Moon brings a wild but precarious fish orgy to California's beaches.” (Honestly, just sharing for the headline; way to go, BBC.)
THIS WEEK’S MIXTAPE
3.5/4
I have to be a little guarded talking about Hockey Dad because I’m writing the bio for their (excellent) new album. Y’all know I only do bios for artists I actually like. I’m really excited for y’all to check out this LP. This didn’t make the bio draft, but “Beach Fossils wearing flip-flops” was a recurring takeaway that made me smile.
3/4
LCD Soundsystem if the bandleader wasn’t shit. Good music video, too. I like the idea of hearing more bands like Finom and songs like “Haircut” and taking it as a sign that more people are going back to dance clubs and being out and about in the world again. Or maybe I just need to leave my apartment more. Anyway, Finom good.
Yannis & The Yaw – “Walk Through Fire” feat. Tony Allen
3/4
Bad music video, good jam, great Tony Allen, really great first impression that Yannis & The Yaw would crush it live. Coming to a KCRW BBQ near you. Why is it so hard to trust dudes who show off their ankles?
3/4
Longtime OPE! readers will know that a band like dust is right up my alley: spooky riffs made by weirdos who love melody. Seductive smooth Internet jazz. Even if post-Brexit post-punk isn’t cool anymore (a scene I still love as someone who interviewed black midi around their debut album), there’s a lot of freshness in how dust approaches its atmosphere with pow. “Trust U See” is also long enough that I started to check the YouTube timestamp to see how much of the song was left. Maybe save the long version for your live set? Still, for now, dust is a winner.
Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”
3/4
I like Sabrina Carpenter and “Espresso” how I like seltzer water. Refreshing, lovely in the right mood, and I don’t care about the brand because it all tastes the same to me. Is there anything cooler than us misremembering ’70s Los Angeles?
And that’s it!
Until next Wednesday, as always.
With love and all the other good things,
-b
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Original OPE! logo by Claire Kuang. Words and cartoons by yours truly. Stock photos by Substack unless credited. Animations made using FlipaClip and EZGIF. All typos are intentional.