WILTLW: Aug. 17, 2025

Life Without Buildings - Any Other City

In an alternate timeline these guys go down as one of the biggest indie bands of the early aughts, bridging the gap between the jangly art pop that swept through the British underground in the 90s and the burgeoning post-punk revival scene that would announce itself in the coming years with releases from The Strokes and Interpol. Instead they dropped this album and then disbanded to pursue practices in the fine arts, which ,come to think of it, sounds like the better option of the two. Also, is anyone else getting a Still House Plants vibe from this? Feels like an early template if you just clear away some of the connective melodies and fuck with the timing some more.

Corridos Ketamina - Corridos Ketamina

I feel for the youth man. In reality I’m only like five or six years older than these guys, but that gap is pretty wide when you consider the vision of the future I grew up with and theirs. How do you proceed when all that’s promised you is escalating global conflict and heat death? Nihilism seems a pretty reasonable response. As Corridos Ketamina, Henny Fay and Nico Malva take the corrdios tumbados genre and submerge it in the shadows, blowing out the drums, scuffing up the guitars, and sapping the lyrics of any shred of glamour. What’s left is an empty hull of drugs, sex and violence, the only distractions strong enough to keep you grounded in the present.

POWER SOURCE

Everyone’s wearing black, huffing nitrous and listening to 160 bpm trance, you know I fit right in. I showed up to catch the aforementioned Corridos Ketamina play a live set, ended up sweating my ass off to Sienna Sleep for an hour straight. It’s important to go to stuff like this to simultaneously remind yourself of how washed you’ve become and that you’ve still got it baby.

SOTW: Zack Villere - "Issy (ft. Phoenix James & Mulherin)"

It’s a bit pointless writing about this song because to accurately capture how I feel I’d have to write another. Emotions are silly things that emanate from inside us and just so happen to control what we think, say and do. The rational mind is a myth, or rather it’s missing the point, it’s all feeling at first, we construct meaning after the fact. What does this have to do with “Issy?” I don’t know, maybe it’s something about learning not to overanalyze, or becoming comfortable with love as a guide, or the simpe joy of playing in the snow with your friends. Who am I to say, I just know it spoke to me.