“Raising the Skate” – Speedy Ortiz
Speedy Ortiz is a rock outfit from Northampton, Mass. fronted by Sadie Dupuis. They’ve recently made news for their help hotline at shows for fans who feel unsafe, especially women and queer people who are targets of harassment. Dupuis takes no shit, and it shows in this track off 2015’s Foil Deer, in which she proclaims: “I’m not bossy, I’m the boss.”
“Survival” – Adult Mom
This Purchase, N.Y. based quartet is fronted by Steph Knipe, who makes this the ultimate queer anthem. Not the Diana Ross kind, but the kind that remembers that trans kids are murdered every day, and that there is much more to the queer struggle than marriage passing in all 50 states. The almost twee strumming distracts from the most important lyric: “I survive because I have died.”
“Townie” – Mitski
This is one of the highlights of Brooklynite Miyawaki’s Bury Me at Makeout Creek (yes, that is a quote from Milhouse). “Townie” gets at a feeling that’s relatable: going to a house party back in your hometown as a young adult. This song rips through distorted guitar rips and makes me want to crush a can of Miller Lite on a mean boy’s forehead.
“Art School” – Frankie Cosmos
Frankie Cosmos’ real name is Greta Kline, and this is a plaintive track off her album Zentropy. In the excellent music video (that has almost nothing to do with the song’s lyrical content), Kline braids her hair and jumps on a bed surrounded by pictures of Justin Bieber. She even puts a photo of her boyfriend face down on her desk, like in an old movie when an affair would start. Live out that fantasy, Frankie Cosmos, that all of us are too embarrassed or disgusted to admit. #bieberfever
“Wishing Well” – Screaming Females
Screaming Females are veterans of the New Brunswick, N.J. basement scene. Marissa Paternoster’s strong yet distinctly quivering voice soars on this track from 2014’s Rose Mountain, Females’ sixth album in ten years. She wails that try as she might to “toss dimes in the wishing well,” she’s “broke” because someone who took her life away.