Chasing Fridays: Lucy Bedroque, sevenmillion, Holidays in United States Q&A, more

I don't have much to say at the top of this week's newsletter other than thank you to everyone who ordered, shared, and/or messaged me about my book "When the Sun Hits: The High-Volume History of Shoegaze." I'm really heartened by the reception thus far, and I'm excited to continue promoting it in as many ways as I can. Meanwhile, this week's Chasing Fridays is completely absent the word "shoegaze." I wrote about some rap that's caught my ear lately – of the rage and emo varieties – and plugged a hardcore band that caused me bodily harm. Then, I wrote a little report on a "shoes off" house show I attended last weekend, and lastly interviewed Holidays in United States, the rising stars of Brooklyn emo who just announced a new album that I'm actually pretty stoked on. I think this is one of their first ever interviews, so just remember where you read their name first...

Lucy Bedroque - "SPEED DEMON" / "WHITEHORSEMANNEQUIN"

Every time I think that rage-rap has run its course, something like this pops up on my timeline and my mind is changed. Like Slayr and his recent tourmate kuru, Lucy Bedroque specializes in a shinier, more melodic, and less hypermasculine form of rage than what the Opium posse typically delivers – and thankfully so. The deadAir signee's 2025 album, Unmusique, was something of a sleeper hit that seemed to find its audience several months after it dropped last spring, and while the record grew on me as well, I was never fully onboard with Bedroque until this new pair of singles, "SPEED DEMON" and "WHITEHORSEMANNEQUIN." These songs are fucking incredible.

It's fun to think of Bedroque as the inverse of his fellow ragestar Che, who took an utterly demonic turn on his latest EP by pitching his voice down into a guttural growl. Bedroque, on the other hand, squeaks with a helium-voiced chirrup on "SPEED DEMON" that somehow manages to out-glimmer the blinding brightness of the surrounding beat. "WHITEHORSEMANNEQUIN" is even more buoyant, beginning with what sounds like sampled guitar strums that quickly shape into a major-key chord progression. Once Bedroque's stuttering harmonies enter, the bass is constantly stretched, snapped, and then mushed back together like a wad of bubblegum. This is rage made for plumping pillows rather than punching walls.

sevenmillion - monella vagabonda

The emo-rock revival that I've been documenting demands more page space right now, but don't let it completely overshadow the concurrent emo-rap renaissance that's been percolating in a different subset of the underground. I saw this giant bill for a $7 rap show that's happening in Ridgewood later this month and decided to check out sevenmillion, whose music scratches an itch that I didn't know I had until earlier this year. That is: cutesy, cloudy, charmingly amateurish emo-rap made by women who dress like 2008 scene girls despite being only a stone's throw from contemporary indietronica. sevenmillion is occupying that lane alongside katmoji, the self-proclaimed tweemo rapper who turns up on sevenmillion's latest mini-album monella vagabonda.

The nucleus of this milieu is the Le Citadell rapper/producer collective, whose vast network of affiliates churn out music that I either admire (xxffcyuvcui) or despise (Swords2). Le Citadell rapper Lihonabolote – who recently had a song produced by ear's Jonah Paz, interestingly enough – turned in my least favorite verse on monella vagabonda, which is an otherwise consistent set of laid-back emo-rap that's wounded but never weak. Most of the beats are made by katmoji's go-to producer cranes (who's also cooked for fakemink and Nettspend), but sevenmillion's delivery is a little more assertive and plainspoken compared to katmoji's dissociated chirps, which gives her songs a noticeably different sensibility.

The standout track, "plug n play," is an open letter to an ex that avoids the typical breakup binaries (wronged/righted) to paint a more nuanced picture of the feelings that linger in a relationship's aftermath. "Even when I'm mad at you, I'll always put you on," sevenmillion raps between acknowledging the pain she endured and reassuring her ex that just because they're done, it doesn't mean her love for him has fully evaporated. I didn't expect such an adult perspective on an album adorned with doodles from a sixth grader's notebook, but sevenmillion's understated sophistication is what makes her music feel durable amidst the surrounding emo-rap deluge. Especially in "plug n play" when she sprinkles some sultry falsettos into her monotone emo-rap cadences; a vocal tick that, if harnessed more going forward, will make her this flier's most capable contender.

Single Print Index - "Neon Red"

I splint my lip at a Single Print Index show last weekend, which makes listening to their new song "Neon Red" that much more viscerally appealing. The new Pittsburgh supergroup of Code Orange and Pain Clinic members wowed me with their debut single "Recover the Mindset," which has a chuggy, chant-along chorus that earned me the aforementioned injury when I joined the pile-up. "Neon Red," the band's ballistic second single, is even leaner and meaner.

In a different timeline, Code Orange would've rode the hype of their scene-conquering 2010s records (I Am King and Forever) and become as big as Knocked Loose are in the 2020s. "Neon Red" imagines another alternate timeline where Code never tried to expand their sound and only made murder music for maladjusted psychos in the hardcore underground. Fortunately for me, Single Print Index are making that fantasy a reality. This is what these guys do best.

Bella Hayes, OST, Kaitlin Simotics live @ 318pgh

I went to this show on a whim last weekend, not really knowing what I was getting into and enjoying it for that exact reason. The venue was a Pittsburgh house in the neighborhood adjacent to mine, but instead of the basement that I was anticipating squeezing into, the gig went down in a clean, empty living room that felt more like a gallery space. It was the only "shoes off" house show I've ever been to, and everyone sat in a semi-circle along the perimeter of the living room while each artist performed. The kitchen had boxes of cereal and various types of milk that anyone could help themselves to, so I had a bowl of Cookie Crisp while watching the Baltimore singer-producer OST croon ethereally over oblique pop instrumentals.

Each set was accompanied by projected visuals, mostly underwater footage of coral reefs or other geometric patterns. Bella Hayes, another Baltimore singer-producer who was touring with OST, began hers with some warped flute sounds (pictured above) and then spent the remainder of the performance prancing gracefully across the dark rug while singing with a stately melancholy that reminded me of Zola Jesus. My favorite set of the night was the opener, Atlanta producer Kaitlin Simotics, who sat cross-legged on the floor twiddling their sampler to produce dense sound collages that fritzed and flashed like an aluminum pan sparking up in a microwave. The intimacy of witnessing that while lounging back on the carpet with my socks and elbows planted on the itchy threads made it that much more immersive. I'll be disappointed the next time I attend a house show and have to stand.

Chasing Down

Connor, Simon, Garry, Annika, Kali
of
Holidays in United States

Chasing Down is a Q&A series with artists, friends, and others of good taste.

Holidays in United States are one of the central players in the burgeoning sixth-wave emo movement. Several of their members also play in the Brooklyn emo supergroup Aeiou, as well as the BK screamo band Cash Only Tony's. Last year, Holidays did a split with the laptop twee geniuses ideasforconversations, and now they're signed to NTS Recordings, a new label subdivision of the chic internet radio behemoth NTS. For people such as myself who lived through emo's first revival in the early 2010s, it's pretty extraordinary to see where a band like Holidays can live in 2026. But I can understand their buzz when I listen to their new song "Girl Problems," an emo ripper that's simultaneously raging, twinkly, and catchy.

For this week's Chasing Down Q&A, I asked all five members of Holidays in United States about their Brooklyn scene, Real Emo's nationwide comeback, their multi-generational influences, how the band changed with the addition of vocalist Annika Haakonsen, their new album How to Count to Five, and much more. Read the full interview below – and the 60-plus others in the archive, with a new one added each week.