★★★★★ Spike Fuck returns
Spike Fuck’s first EP, The Smackwave EP (2016), was a perfect—like, actually perfect—offering of country-inflected angsty rock songs, with lyrics by turns hilarious and devastating. (On “Body by Crystal”: “Cause we became inseparable, we were like blood/You were like the sister I never had, the one I wanna fu—.”) After a successful run of tours, interviews, and a Rick Owens endorsement, the rising star vanished from public life. For years, actually. What happened? God? Drugs? Getting healthy? Then, a couple months ago, out of nowhere, Spike announced a comeback gig to showcase new music. It sold out immediately. In fact, it was so sold out that, on the night, desperate fans passed around sharpies and drew the Curtin’s intricate stamp on each other’s wrists. We caught the tail-end of one of the support acts, Boyfriend TV, a tight, hunky, three-piece headed by the charismatic Louis Avolo, then took a breather outside. When we returned, the musty band room was packed, everyone jostling to get closer to the front. Upturned faces lit up as Spike F and his band walked on stage. They wore natty dark-academia-by-way-of-Savers garb, adorned by big fabric “S’s.” “My handlers informed me that I should play some of the, uh, hits,” Spike announced. Hits followed, but the new material was just as good. A sit-down acoustic number about his dad had shades of a Sinead O’Connor ballad, and, weeks later, we’re still humming it. We’d reveal more but there’s another show on July 5, almost sold out. Do what you gotta do to get there.
★★★★ Brat by Charli XCX
Can't stop listening, sorry. Bumping that.
★★★ Hot bubble tea
It’s cold all of a sudden, which means that any minute now some Scandinavian expat is going to tell you that the winters here are worse than in Oslo. We don’t insulate our buildings properly. We underdress. We live under a collective delusion that this city conforms to the “Aussie” stereotype of endless summer, when really, for nine months of the year, we’re battered by Antarctic winds. This might all be true, but did the Vikings have hot bubble tea? Our current order is Green Milk Tea, warmed up, with half sugar and boba. The pearls turn gooey and pudding-like at the bottom—so it’s basically food, too. Screw saunas. Go to Gong cha.
★★ My First Book by Honor Levy
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