Picture this: It’s 2004. I’m living in Berkeley, California. I swear I am a cool girl. I’m dating a rapper who has had some success. He’s got massive dreadlocks that differentiate him from everyone.
I lost track of Ben while I was married. Seven years. I hadn’t seen Ben in 7 years. Ben refers to those years as my<a class="more" href="/web_features/no-bull-bourbon-reviews-knob-creek">... more</a>
I turn the knob to the right, bang my hands against the steering wheel, and deafeningly inform the world that I’m out of my cage and doing just fine.
Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Malkmus
February 13th, 2001
Matador Records
12 songs, 42 Minutes
I ripped this CD onto my<a class="more" href="/web_features/stephen-malkmus">... more</a>
Cave In
Album: Jupiter
Released: August 8, 2000
Hydra Head
Length: 44:10
My friend Beth was blamed for everything I ever<a class="more" href="/web_features/jupiter">... more</a>
The Record
Fear
Label: Slash
Released: May 16, 1982
Length: 14 songs, 27 minutes
This is about a dead guy. But it’s<a class="more" href="/web_features/the-record">... more</a>
On this poorly planned excursion I had a bucket of coffee and exactly one CD – my brother’s copy of Death Cab’s then brand new Narrow Stairs.
You’ll wake up on Labor Day and argue with the people you’re carpooling with over when to leave.
But while I am nervous for what’s to come, I’ve always found comfort in Paramore—whether I was: 15 and head banging to “Misery Business” during anime club; crushing it on my Rock Band drum set to “That’s What You Get”; fucking up at my first publishing internship with an earful of “Ain’t It Fun”; or lip-syncing to “Still Into You” in my junior year dorm room, at 4 a.m., when I was in denial about how in love I was with a best friend.
If this album were a place, it would be a penny candy store: high fructose and courting an overdose.
This album feels like rain; like those moments when you are half asleep in bed reviewing the day.
New Miserable Experience
Gin Blossoms
Label: A&M
Released: August 4th, 1992
Length: 45:02
When I<a class="more" href="/web_features/new-miserable-experience">... more</a>
I was still in diapers when American Fool was released, so by the time I made my way to Indiana for college, it was already a classic. And it’s not until you live in Indiana—in small-town Indiana—that you feel Johnny Cougar Mellencamp in your veins.
And so even though my flight was the next morning and my phone was dying and I had neither a charger nor anyone else’s phone number written down, I went to the show, alone.
We were there to see Belgian metal band Oathbreaker. And I bought a Khemmis shirt, in part because theirs was one of the best, most metal, riffiest sets I’ve ever seen and in part because their shirts were the kinds of all wizards and skulls that you want in a metal shirt. But it was Jaye Jayle I found most hypnotic.
I don’t know if I ever actually listened to Blink-182, but I told people that I did.
Preparation:
- In pint glass, pour Rumchata over ice.
- Top with Dr. Pepper or Root Beer, whichever he is feeling.
- Drink through a straw.
And I had to wonder while I watched the mosh-pits if these kids were even listening.
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah
Nirvana
Label: DGC
Released: October 1st, 1996
Length: 17 songs, 54<a class="more" href="/web_features/from-the-muddy-banks-of-the-wishkah">... more</a>
This was the “Year of the Whopper”:
I ate a Whopper.
I ate a Whopper.
You dumped me.
A Tribe Called Quest
We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service
Released: November 11,<a class="more" href="/web_features/we-got-it-from-here-thank-you-4-your-service">... more</a>
Leonard Cohen was untouchable. I’m not a fan of poems about poetry—or at least, I’ve never been able to pull it off—and that’s all Cohen is. Poetry.
22, A Million
Bon Iver
Label: Jagjaguwar
Released: September 30, 2016
Length: 10 songs, 34 minutes
The first words<a class="more" href="/web_features/22-a-million">... more</a>
Maybe we need a few more windows-rolled-down drives out to the country with good tunes cranked up
This whole album is full of wandering. Play it at a high altitude, and the line might fade entirely between dream and reality.
A 400-page collection of poems in fours sections: Nicki Minaj Songs, Bob Dylan Songs, Elliott Smith Songs, and 90s Riot Grrrls Songs.
FOUR NEW ESSAYS BY CHLOE CALDWELL! Plus the original essays that made you fall in love with Chloe!
Jason Phoebe Rusch is a queer writer from the Chicago suburbs. His full-length debut Dualities explores gender and patriarchy from the perspective of a man who was socialized and is currently still read as a woman. He is interested in complication and nuance and messy human failing, his own and that of others.
