WITLW: October 5, 2025
Everything I listened to last week!
What I Listened To Last Week:
Astronauts, etc. @ Lodge Room 🎤
Song of the Week: Lucio Battisti - “Abbracciala abbracciali abbracciati” 🎵
Astronauts, Etc. @ Lodge Room
I’d never heard of Astronauts, etc. before this show, I went to support my high school friend Jess whose band Mare came down from the Bay to open (and did a great job!). They make a kind of amalgamation of mid-10s indie pop-rock: part Real Estate, part Neon Indian, part Ariel Pink. At one point band leader Tony Ferraro even sounded exactly like Dan Bejar. Looking at their Spotify Fans Also Like I spotted infinite bisous of all people, does that ring a bell to anyone else? Or was it just me running up the streams on “Teen Sex” back in the day. Anyway, this was also one of the most diverse crowds I’ve ever seen, especially considering it was maybe 80 people tops. Couples in their late 40s on date night standing next to out-of-shape white dudes who look like they own way too many synths standing next to groups of Asian and Latin-American teenagers in matching black hoodies. The guy next to me was slow-dancing by himself the entire time and singing the words to every song, a good reminder that everyone’s a hero to someone.
Taylor Swift - The Life Of a Showgirl
Taylor Swift writes like a teenage girl (a talented one, but still) discovering poetry for the first time, which is why it’s concerning that so many people in their 30s still think she’s the pinnacle of songwriting. Are we tired of this yet? Taylor’s opening her thighs to true love, Taylor’s dick is bigger than mine, Taylor’s play-acting as Elizabeth Taylor (maybe watch out for that last one Travis). It’s Taylor’s world and I want out.
Malibu - Vanities
I still don’t know if I like this album or not but I did get a kick out of listening to it on my drive down to Long Beach yesterday, cresting, diving and gliding atop a 5-lane wide strip of bleached concrete as the sun’s rays glinted off of hundreds of windshields and back onto my own, creating arcs of false light in the distance. Vanities’ diaphanous swoon transformed my mundane commute into an existential journey at the edge of the world. What was this strange landscape I found myself navigating? Who were these faceless travelers on the road beside me? Where did it all lead? In a recent interview Malibu has said that the album title is a reference to the ways in which we derive meaning from inherently meaningless things, I suppose that also extends to trips on the 710.
SOTW: Lucio Battisti - “Abbracciala abbracciali abbracciati”
Music is the one divine art, a call from the beyond, a glimpse behind the veil, a balm for the soul. It is the universe communicating to us about things we cannot see in ways we cannot comprehend. No matter how much we claim to understand, it we do not. Every attempt to rationalize music’s power inevitably flounders at the point of explication, what is a major chord really? “Abbracciala abbraciali abbracciati” descends from above as an example of this very ineffability, a sublime and sumptuous song that unfolds as a technicolor spectrum among the stars. Its title means “Embrace her, embrace them, embrace yourself,” I promise that if you listen you’ll wish to do nothing else.