a review of an album by a guy who doesn't prioritize music

Longtime Brooklyn musician Brian Russ finally lets the music surface

Brian Russ has a family, a job, he coaches baseball—stuff that often comes with mature adulthood. But he found time to put this album together. He calls the project Hand Gestures.

Some people—maybe especially once they reach their 40s—try to be in the moment but also frequently find themselves thinking about the past and trying to relate it to now. That’s what happens in these simple little songs.

For starters, “Once it Starts to Kick In” is a simple little jam about opening up oneself to whatever good there is in whatever reality has become. The song includes an overdriven guitar that intrudes in a way that is at odds with the easy-going sound of the drums, acoustic guitar, and vocal. And mid-song, a little keyboard offers a toy melody that plays well with that overdrive.

Most of the album is like this: simple songs—songs that feel like they were already written, and Russ just had to channel them for himself.

Russ has been playing music a while. Check out the video “I’m Not Lying” by a band he was in, Backwords, posted more than 10 years ago. Man, that is a good song. The pining, the purity of the voice? Lovely. The loose composition and modest hi-hat tapping away the time. That oldie has a kind and rooted sound.

 

The Hand Gestures self-titled album will be released October 31, 2025, on Russ’s own label, Campers’ Rule Records. But today he needs to stop at Home Depot to get a spare key made and pick up some weed killer.

Notes: A lot generous, this review. I don't think Russ is even the singer for Backwords. That song was the main reason I wrote this.

some good—really good—death metal lyrics for anyone to use

ʿAtā Reborn into Royalty
 

Black robes flow from the princess, armed with a shining knife
Her cult of worshipers beneath stained glass kneel and prepare for death
The hate she has for those who love her expands, exploding stars
“Please kill me” they chant in verse, shrieks of love, all their breath

Skin and sinew give way to the blade, she spits venom into their eyes
She of endless sight and time exacts torture on their souls
Goat bleats and human gurgles unite in praise for ʿAtā
Another three-toed creation feeds and feasts and grows

She birthed ninety-nine precious young who hunger for human flesh
But the last one, stillborn, hangs rotting, suspended over her bed

about July 22, 2025

On Saturday, August 23, 2025, she finally cried about Ozzy Osbourne dying, of all things. “Goodbye to Romance” and “Mama, I’m Coming Come.” She was so sad. Cried while listening. She also read a couple of old emails she exchanged with a boyfriend and was impressed by those people. She read an email from her sister. Christ, she was feeling a lot. A three-hour-tour situation.

 

On that Diary of a Madman tour, a midget was always swinging from a noose overhead during the performance. 

Notes: Ozzy was 76.

 

another review, this time of a punk band from Sweden

Fast, dirty songs give you that little kick in the ass you need

Maybe try some fast living vicariously with Spøgelse and these speedy elbow-throwing songs. The Swedish hardcore punk band advertise a lifestyle of motion, momentum, and attitude.

Of course the first song is titled “Who Cares,” but it shortly introduces the band and singer’s confident, chin-out sound—“No, I don’t want that attitude, I don’t want to love you, No, I don’t need that shit from you, I guess I don’t.” It’s a good fuck-you of a song with fuzz-busted guitars and mind-made-up tempo. “Terrible Head” offers more of the same, but Spøgelse at least sound like they’re having fun.

The production throughout leaves instruments muffled and buried, for better or worse. And the drums, which run a little ahead of the rest of the band, sound buried under the distortion and noise.

Most of these songs are barely a minute long, but “Kick Them Where It Hurts” manages almost two and a half minutes of okay stuff, starting with a chunky little riff that beckons the rest to come jam. The song even makes space for some hot licks. The playing on this song outshines the vocal. Everywhere else, that voice is the album’s strength.

If you’re looking for a RIYL, it’s probably Motorhead. Listen to “East Coast Nightmare” and try not to hear that influence.

Spøgelse debuted with a self-titled album in spring 2023. This follow-up, “Spøgelse II,” came out via Welfare Sounds & Records on October 24, 2025.

song lyrics by one of my favorite bands, Today is the Day

Rape my country again. Over and over and over again. No. I got a hand. I can use it. You could be the one. Running from my gun. Running from the bad man. Running from the gun man. Running with your life at stake. Taken. Broken. Homeless. Heartless. I'm not afraid. I got my guns. Now you're the one. Running from my guns. Running from the bad man. Running from the gun man. Running now your life's at stake. How's it feel to be my target? I won't miss. I totally promise. When you shoot at me don't be afraid. Justice will be done. Victory will be won. Life will be good again. Wipe away the blood. Shake away the pain. Live your fucking life. That's a good philosophy. Get yourself a brain. Break the fucking chain. Put the knife away. Be an honest man again. Mean what you say. Say what you mean. Try some self respect my friend. Paint that black word. Tear down that church. Look within. Try to find. Fly away. Heart and mind. Look so deep. Deep inside. Fade away. Heart and mind. Cross the sea. Far away. Cast the spell, this I say. Count on me. I'm your Glock. Rack the slide. Gonna rock. Better watch what you say. Better watch what you do. Better learn how to live. Get ready to move. Can you change? Brand new name in a rage, violent race.

about Truman Capote’s “Summer Crossing”

Truman Capote started writing Summer Crossing in 1943 while he was employed at The New Yorker, but he set the novella aside to write what became his first published work, 1948’s Other Voices, Other Rooms. Sometime after, an editor at Random House offered Capote lukewarm feedback on Summer Crossing. Capote himself then expressed a lack of confidence in the novella and, evidently, put it aside for good. The drafts were thought to be lost but turned up years after Capote’s death, and the novella was finally published in 2005.

As the Summer Crossing story goes, it is 1945, and a wealthy 17-year-old socialite named Grady McNeil stays behind in New York City while her parents travel to summer in France. Grady, finally alone, pursues her new and secret relationship with Clyde Manzer, a young parking lot attendant. Meanwhile, Grady’s close, lifelong friend and social peer Peter Bell makes clear his romantic interest. But Grady instead plays house with Clyde and then marries him. The gaping class and cultural divide between them soon comes into view, though, and events and feelings turn, leaving Grady desperate in the final pages.

I enjoyed reading Summer Crossing. I can understand an editor offering it a tepid response; even I thought Clyde seemed like a caricature, and Grady marrying Clyde was not very believable. But I have also read more highly acclaimed works with worse flaws.

Besides, the writing.

I expect first novels to be a bit indulgent and flowery with the prose, but Capote was incapable, I think, of real error; Summer Crossing is intense in its poeticism but not overly flowery and indulgent. I marked this part:

Whenever she had reason to be, Grady was always surprised at how fondly concerned her feelings for Janet actually were: a trifle of a person, like a seashell that might be picked up and, because of its pink frilled perfection, kept to admire but never put among a collector's serious treasures: unimportance was both her charm and her protection, for it was impossible to feel, as Grady certainly didn't, threatened by or jealous of her.

A while ago I tried to read Other Voices, Other Rooms, but somehow I could not get into it. I remember thinking the richness of detail was overwhelming, and that it must be almost unbearable to be that sensitive to one's surroundings, for so much of life to fall under your attention.

Here is another passage I noted from Summer Crossing:

At home everyone had remarked how much alike they looked, both of them skinny and straggling and red-headed. She fluffed the doll’s hair and straightened her skirt; it was like old times when Margaret had always been such a help: oh Margaret, she began, and stopped, struck still by the thought that Margaret’s eyes were blue buttons and cold, that Margaret was not the same anymore.

Carefully she moved across the room and raised her eyes to a mirror: nor was Grady the same. She was not a child. It had been so ideal an excuse she somehow had persisted in a notion that she was: when, for instance, she’d said to Peter it had not occurred to her whether or not she might marry Clyde, that had been the truth, but only because she’d thought of it as a problem for a grown-up: marriages happened far ahead when life grey and earnest began, and her own life she was sure had not started; though now, seeing herself dark and pale in the mirror, she knew it had been going on a very long while.

about how to say goodbye

Part 1

Hey everyone I just received some terrible news from X’s mom. She asked me to share with y’all.

X is not doing well. We are going into Palliative/Hospice  Care. Tumors have spread and Liver is not functioning. It could be days or weeks before he passes.  Please share with everyone!  

Thank you [prayer hands and blue heart emojis]

Part 2

1515 Holcombe MDA main Building! Park in Garage 2 and come to the Pavilion area. Go to F Elevator to floor 22 room 2247

Evening in place on [LOCATION], Houston, TX 77027.

Part 3

Thank you for coming to visit! It meant the world to me and X! [heart emojis] Will keep you updated! Safe travels home!

an interview with a second- or third-generation 90s band

Dr. Martens never really went out of style

Ivory Daze, a shoegaze trio from Lincoln, Nebraska, just released a new EP, "Chlorine." Their sound is 1990s alternative guitar music—heavy, but not metal.

Guitar player and singer Isahen Harms took a moment to answer some questions.

Damon: Will these songs be on a full-length album?

Isahen Harms: No, these songs have always been meant for their own EP. We tried to make something cohesive even if it's coming in the form of a five-song EP.

Damon: The band promo material says, "With Chlorine, the band pushes further into the tension between chaos and melody, drawing from the best of 80s and 90s guitar music while carving out their own modern path." Why do you think you are drawn to music from the 90s? Why are the 90s influencing you now?

Isahen: There were just a lot of really good records put out in the 90s. Being a three-piece guitar, bass, drum, and vocal band, it's kinda hard not to take influence from that era of music. We still listen to and take influence from every era of music, though. Currently our guitar player is listening to Sade, our bass player is listening to Shallowater, and our drummer is listening to John Prine. We are kinda all over the place.

Damon: You sound a little like the band Hum. Are you familiar with that band? If so, what do you like about them?

Isahen: Yeah, we all like Hum. “You’d Prefer an Astronaught” is a great record. Lots of cool chords on that album.

Damon: What influences do you have from the 1980s? What elements specifically?

Isahen: We all like Duran Duran, Hall and Oates, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, The Smiths, etc. There was just a lot of good pop music being put out back then, and we take a lot of influence from pop music.

Damon: What is something you are afraid to say to someone you love?

Isahen: I slept with an ex's dad once. That was a rough conversation.

The new EP, "Chlorine," opens with “IV League,” a song that showcases the band’s strength—its rhythm section. A strong back beat pumps momentum. The vocal walks clean and pushes at the chorus.

In “Waco” I most clearly hear the 90s influences, like The Smashing Pumpkins and Hum, in two major ways. First, the chord changes and rhythms. The song recalls “Cherub Rock” right there in the open. Second, the band sounds big—big drums, velvety bass, fuzz guitars on overdrive and crunch, all in a full mix with good output. Heavy melody.

The best vocal on this EP comes on the single, “Corset.” The little Oohs and Yous make for a catchy vocal. It works.

 

The main things about The Smashing Pumpkins were probably the superb rhythm section, big guitar and production, and Corgan’s voice. Ivory Daze have a good rhythm section and big chords. The vocal is anonymous.

"Chlorine" was released October 17, 2025.

 

 

about Thanksgiving and family

Turkey baked in a bag. Mashed potatoes and green beans. Pie and whipped cream! And the Cowboys. We cook it, we eat and watch the game together. This is how Thanksgiving has been for several years: just us two. And if the game is boring or the turkey is dry—who cares? I enjoy Thanksgiving, this family holiday, because it is not Christmas. Fewer people, no presents, no long buildup, less stress, less drama. What it is is the casual closeness, the informality I used to think defined our family in the best of times.

 

an exercise for lost souls

I write it down right now so I can remember later what I was feeling before my neuron system failed for circuitry though it tried to create a mirror calculation and specially summoned biological courage that takes pleasure in deception of appearance and the art of measuring out the primal needs of social connection. Can you hear your own heart pounding? You pray for death as you crave life with her.

My God: What do you do if you still have the appetite, the craving, but you don’t have the stomach for it anymore?

noise rock album reviews like this one

Takomaha winds up the air so it coils in your brain like a diamondback

When Takomaha turns up the volume on “American Basements,” feedback is already singing through the amps. The bass drum kicks, slipped by a hi-hat tap. A tumbling drum phrase articulates the tension welling inside a tooth-grinding bassline. And from this descends a vocal, clear and confident.

This musical introduction halts when the guitar suddenly rips chords into air already made humid and bright with noise.

When the scaffolding we've erected starts to fail, it makes this music.

The promotional copy compares it to This Heat, At The Drive In, and A Place To Bury Strangers. Takomaha debuted with a self-titled EP in 2022, and on October 29, the Oslo band will deliver its second, “American Basement,” on Loyal Blood Records.

The second song, “Scopekreep,” starts with cutting rhythms—drums and bass tumble over lovely dissonance scattered by the guitar. This music is about mood and intensity. The lyrics pronounce the mission: “Out here doing the Lord’s work / just out here doing the Good Lord’s work.” The monotone vocal rides the building volume. Then tension gives way, and the song transitions to a groove that again unfolds into a noise-rock crescendo.

The single posted below is “Tropical Slitwrist.” This eight-minute gunner opens with big dissonance, then steps back and up again with expulsions of sound. At 2:30, the bass and drums exact a tension-filled jam. But at 3:15, the song goes dark-dancehall electro and builds in volume. At 6:30, it bursts and the bass hammers. But this is brief, as the song drops back into the dark electro whatever. It finally moves toward closure at 7:30, cutting back and forth between the core synthesizer accents and the full noise machine.