Chasing Fridays: Ninajirachi, 9Million, Golden Apples Q&A, more

What a week. From Thursday the 14th through Sunday 17th, I was bouncing around Pittsburgh seeing punk, hardcore, and metal bands from all over the world who were congregating for the city's annual Skullfest. It was equally fun and tiring, and you'll have to pick up the forthcoming issue of the Violent Treatment zine in order to read all of my thoughts on the weekend's festivities. However, I did write about one of my Skullfest favorites in this edition of Chasing Fridays, along with a shit-ton of other music that I binged on this week while nursing a post-fest summer cold. Shoegaze, hardcore, hyperpop, and more are on the docket this week, in addition to a Q&A with Philly power-pop pros Golden Apples. As Negative Approach's John Brannon said several times last week at Skullfest, check it out.

9Million - 9Million

At long last, the new 9Million album is here. I've been hyping this band in the pages of Chasing Sundays since I saw them live last year and walked away awestruck by the sheer force of their seven-person shoegaze ensemble. Right now, 9Million are touring across the country with Ethel Cain, whose two full-lengths were produced in collaboration with 9Million head honcho Matthew Tomasi. I'm really curious to see what playing in front of those gigantic audiences will do for 9Million, who still feel like a secret handshake among certain shoegaze heads. I was really hoping that 9Million, their follow-up to 2023's Between Us, would be an undeniable smash that stood among the decade's best shoegaze LP's. It's not. It's a good record by a great band who still sound a few steps shy of reaching their full potential.

More than any other group, 9Million remind me of The Jesus and Mary Chain. Not Psychocandy or Darklands-era JAMC, but 1990s-era JAMC, where they let go of their arty abrasiveness and basically became a rock 'n' roll band. I love that era of JAMC and so do 9Million, as evidenced by their stellar cover of "Sometimes Always" on 2023's Gush EP. The peaks on 9Million recast the shaggy girth of Honey's Dead and Munki through a millennial lens. "Shine On" and "When the Kissing Had to Stop" are driving and sensual, but even at their shoegaze-iest, 9Million still prefer grunge heft to ethereal delicacy. That proclivity for brute force succeeds profusely on the heavy-hitting tracks ("The Trick," "Creation"), but 9Million is a gratuitously eclectic record, and the grip of softer songs are where the band lose me.

"Fear of Falling" is a loping ballad with programmed drums and auto-tuned murmurings that sadly lacks direction, and the mid-tempo pop-rock jaunts ("Play Pretend," "Occam's Razor") are the record's most indistinct moments. Frankly, the entire final third of the album feels undercooked until finale "Creation" cranks the heat with searing grunge riffs and toe-crushing drum thwacks. Here, 9Million doubled the length of the single version by tacking on a sinewy outro jam that nods to the space-rock might of Smashing Pumpkins' glory days, a mode I wish 9Million explored more often on this effort. There're enough undeniable heaters on here to make 9Million a worthwhile spin, but I'm still waiting for the band's recorded material to translate the unparalleled grandeur of their live show. Being better onstage than on record might be the least JAMC thing about them.

Faze - Big Upsetter

Of all the 47 sets I saw at Skullfest over the weekend, Faze were the only band whose music I saved to my library once I got home. I saw this Montreal group twice in an old warehouse space, the first time with terrible sound issues that scooped out the vocals and guitar, and the second with pristine sound that allowed the music's trance-like quality to woo me. After mainlining their 2024 LP, Big Upsetter, all week post-fest, I feel confident saying Faze are the best reverb/delay-core band of this decade. Better than Gel, Spy, Jivebomb, and all the other Hoax/Bib clones, which is an iteration of hardcore that mostly sounds dated and disposable to me at this point in time.

What makes Faze so enduring is the droney, psychedelic pulse that thrums through each of their tracks. With a couple songs running well beyond the four-minute mark, the band give themselves time to jam on a groove until the melty guitars and wavey, echo-ridden vocals liquify into a mystical glimmer that evokes water mirages gleaming on a hot strip of concrete. There was still enough staccato punch in their music to get the pits moving at Skullfest, but I mostly found myself standing there gazing through the musicians on the stage, unable to move a muscle while under the spell of their Velvetsy sorcery. When it comes to hardcore with a post-punk artfulness, it doesn't get much better than Faze.

Outta Pocket - Your Last Breath

After a weekend weathering battlejacket scratches and airborne beers, I needed to decompress from Skullfest by soaking in some inveterate fight music. Outta Pocket's 2023 LP, Waste of a Man, is one of the best beatdown hardcore records this decade: raw, misanthropic, catchy, and easily my favorite full-length from this generation's Bay Area scene. Your Last Breath is Outta Pocket's first material since the death of their guitarist Christopher Oropeza, and that tragedy is woven into the blood-stained fabric of this pummeling tribute EP. Not all the songs work through grief. "Natural Selection," a homicidal threat anthem featuring the larger-than-life vocalist of Three Knee Deep, is like an action movie trailer in song form: guns-blazing, high-charged thrills for all two minutes.

The remainder of Your Last Breath comes from a place of somber catharsis. In the title track, vocalist Lee Michel-Santana is weighed down by survivor's guilt and inescapable thoughts of suicide as a way to numb the pain of Oropeza's death. The music is Outta Pocket's typical fare of groovy destruction, but here the mosh parts have a funereal tinge. The band take a worthwhile creative risk on "Memories," a smoldering ballad that's written directly for the deceased. Michel-Santana can't make sense of his friend's passing, and the only silver lining is that it's given the tortured singer one sole reason to persist. "I hope you know I'm trying my best," he wails over mournful guitars. This EP puts Outta Pocket in a lineage of hardcore bands, from Neglect to Never Ending Game, where the musician's pain is so convincing that it's concerning to listen to. Not in a way that's exploitative, but in the way all great pain art is: vulnerable, uncomfortable, real.

Ninajirachi - I Love My Computer

I've written a lot about "post-hyperpop" this year and have been intrigued by how so much of the current wave of trendy electro-pop feels like a reaction against 100 gecs & co. That being said, Ninajirachi's phenomenal new album, I Love My Computer, is just straight-up hyperpop. I don't know what else to call this gleeful bash of uptempo dubstep (think Recess-era Skrillex), supercharged house, and screen-damaged meta-pop that celebrates cyborgian romance in all its forms. Whether she's singing about deleting a calculated selfie once the intended viewer saw it ("Delete") or wanting to have sex with her actual computer ("Fuck My Computer"), Ninajirachi's songs are an endless IV drip of serotonin. Even "Infohazard," a song about stumbling into uncensored snuff images online as a child, is a celestial EDM romp with Crystal Castles-y vocal manipulations.

Across its abundant highs, I Love My Computer sounds like a Kero Kero Bonito record produced by Danny L Harle. Nearly every song feels like a standout. "All I Am" is a house rager that makes me want to break edge and hoist a flag at EDC. "Battery Death" mangles the kiddie-voiced gang-chant choruses Bassvictim specialize in with shards of glassy dubstep and Grimesy ethereal-pop. "It's You" is a duet with fellow Aussie hyperpopper daine that achieves Brat levels of club-conquering bliss. The sugar-rush maximalism is the draw, but it's the self-referential lyricism about the construction of music – FL Studio shoutouts in "iPod Touch," GarageBand references in the Ninajirachi origin story "Sing Good" – that remind me of the fourth-wall shattering that made early 100 gecs and Food House so playfully refreshing. At a time when being online feels more sinister than ever, I Love My Computer reinforces that the internet can be a potent source of joy, love, and wubs.

Postcards - Ripe

I've been doing this long enough that I'm now "discovering" bands I've already written about. After poking around for some information on Postcards, I realized I wrote warmly about their' 2020 album, The Good Soldier, which reminded me of Beach House at the time. The Beirut band's new LP, Ripe – released on the Ruptured label, who issued the Nicolas Jaar/Charbel Haber/Sary Moussa album I'm so fond of – has a broader sonic palette. At times, Postcards sound like s/t-era Slowdive but darker, and at other points they almost remind me of the Screaming Females if they were a goth band.​ Ripe is atmospheric but always on edge. There's an intensity to the way the music churns and a severity to singer Julia Sabra's vocals that keeps me listening at a lean-forward position. For bedtime shoegaze, look elsewhere.

ear - "Theorem"

Everything about ear is peculiar. Sources tell me this band's recent L.A. show – which cost $6 to get in – was swarmed with A&R's, and now they're supposedly managed by an internet music bigwig. Their first song, 2024's "Nerves," which was partially recorded in the Bard college library, has nearly a million Spotify streams. "Theorem," released last week, is their fourth song. As opposed to the collagey glitchiness of their terrific May singles, "Fetish" and "Valley Serpent," "Theorem" is a straightforward pop song.

It reminds me of something I would've heard on a comp with Ricky Eat Acid 10 years ago except outfitted for the present. ear's two members, Yaelle Avtan and Jonah Paz, harmonize their deadpan mutters over a simple synth melody that eventually ascends into a squelchy, bassy electroclash drop, and then descends back to a bedroom-pop plink. Once again, ear are really talented at exacerbating the tension between homebound intimacy and clubgoing passion. The industry hype around this group is funny to me in the way all industry hype around outsider music is, but I get it. ear are one of the coolest young bands in America right now.

Crowbar, Eyehategod, Pain Clinic, Stalemate of Wills, O.I.L. live @ Preserving

Between catching Dropdead at Skullfest and then Crowbar and Eyehategod later in the week, I crossed some real heavy-hitters off the "music for 45-year-olds" section of my bucket list. In fairness, despite the memes about Crowbar being "grown person" music that you have to age into once the twinkle of youth has left your eye, there were plenty of people far younger than me at this gathering of the sludgealos. Like most metal bands who originally come from hardcore, Crowbar had a minor resurgence with younger listeners about 10 years back when they played This Is Hardcore 2014, and I think it's safe to say their stock among trend-conscious hardcore youths has soared once again.

I think there's several reasons for this. The first thing that comes to mind is Acid Bath's bizarre virality on Tiktok, which has introduced a generation of edgy teens to the dark, tortured swamps of Southern sludge-metal. While Crowbar aren't quite as provocative or mysterious as Acid Bath, the sonic similarities are obvious, and Crowbar have a far more enduring discography to rifle through once kids get tired of popping the kite string. I still haven't heard all the Crowbar records, but I've never heard a bad one (2022's Zero and Below is very solid considering how long they've been at it) and the fact that they've never gone through a corny commercial phase or tried to be something that they're not has clearly paid off in the long-haul (this show was sold out).

Eyehategod have had a similar career trajectory and also had plenty of teens rocking their awesome merch at this show. Their transgressive subject matter – drugs, incest, poverty – is catnip for adolescent extremists, and singer Mike Williams is an entertaining character whose wasted rambles had the whole room smirking. I just don't think their music is very good. I've never connected with their recordings despite years of trying, and hearing them play the same three riffs for nearly an hour was at times excruciating. Both the openers at this show, the slow-motion O.I.L. and the far more Sabbathian Stalemate of Wills, were more musically engaging, and for as punky as Eyehategod can get during their crossover parts, they didn't come close to matching the energy of Pittsburgh hardcore titans Pain Clinic.

My displeasure with Eyehategod helped clarify my love of Crowbar. Both bands hail from the same NOLA scene, have shared members over the years, and have collaborated on other side-projects (Down being the best of the spinoffs). But Eyehategod don't have Kirk Windstein. The Crowbar bandleader writes riffs that feel weighed down by truckloads of solid lead, and his iconic croak has only gotten raspier and gnarlier over time. Windstein is suffering from a herniated disc on this tour that's causing the 60-year-old frontman to have to sit down while playing. It didn't have any tangible effect on his vocal delivery or playstyle, and his chipper, charming personality was on full display.

"Let me show you how to do a proper fucking breakdown, New Orleans style," he quipped at one point before the band shook the venue's floors. Later on in the set he chirped, "It doesn't get much heavier than that!" after the band played a devastating sludge churn that was well-deserving of Windstein's description. Crowbar aren't "grown person" music because you have to be old to get it, but because their whole schtick is outfitted to age gracefully while their other three-decade-old contemporaries wither.

Chasing Down

RUSSELL EDLING
of
Golden Apples

Elephant Six. Yo La Tengo. The Beatles. If you enjoy those musical entities as much as I do, then you'll probably enjoy Golden Apples as much as I do. The Philly band released an album in 2023 called Bananasugarfire that contains some of the catchiest rock songs I've heard in years. Their new album, Shooting Star, is a hair less deliriously hooky, but that's because Golden Apples opened up their sound to all sorts of psychedelic flourishes that make Shooting Star rangier and vibier than the taut, efficient Bananasugarfire. There's more Stereolab and Deerhunter in their DNA this time around, but the album still makes room for some of the greatest earworms I've heard this decade. I'm once again confounded that Golden Apples aren't bigger. Hopefully Shooting Star will change that.

For this week's Chasing Down Q&A, I asked Golden Apples frontman Russel Edling about YLT deep cuts, band name origins, loving the Velvet Underground, the best live bands in Philly, and the making of Shooting Star. Read the full interview below.

My friend and I were debating this recently so I need to get to the bottom of it: is the name Golden Apples an Apples in Stereo nod or a Silver Apples nod? Or neither?

The Apples in Stereo “Strawberryfire” / Golden Apples Bananasugarfire relationship is bizarre because honestly. As much as I was of course aware of that song and that band, there was zero intentional nod there whatsoever.

Country Teasers have a song called “Golden Apples” that I love a lot. And I love how wonderfully repetitive Silver Apples’ music can be (“Oscillations”...come ON). I was sort of into Golden Apples as a name and all the other little associations that were coming to mind felt like words of encouragement. I had a few other band names in the works, but to me Golden Apples just felt like the name of a band that I might have found out about on Allmusic when I was 15, and I guess that’s still where my head is.

To me, Shooting Star is breezier and more psychedelic than Bananasugarfire. How did you feel your songwriting evolved between those two records? Any new influences you're pulling from on Shooting Star? 

There is a song called “Breeze” on Shooting Star so I guess you’ve got to be onto something there, hah. I think i have always been interested in psychedelic music. I really like contemporary bands like Thee Oh Sees, Clinic, Wooden Shjips, but I also love 13th Floor Elevators, Os Mutantes, Can, Silver Apples, etc. I love songs that kinda go forever, like Neu!’s “Hallogallo."

So I think there’s a part of me that is trying to incorporate more of those influences into my world. I also love albums that seem to break all the rules, like Foxygen’s ...And Star Power, and Milk Man by Deerhoof. Those albums just serve as a reminder that there really are no rules, and your record can be as scrappy and incoherent as your head, if you want.