**What editor in chief Jess Grose is listening to:**
I’m such an old when it comes to new music. I have rarely added a new band to my listening rotation since 2005 or thereabouts. So I was tremendously proud of myself for getting into Thao and the Get Down Stay Down over the past month. Thao is not remotely a new artist, just new to me. We even interviewed her for (1) 2016 and somehow it took me another full year to get on board (see: old). I discovered the song ” (2)” because I had been listening to Mirah on Spotify and the algorithm predicted I’d like this, too. That goddamn machine was right. My whole family has been listening to the mellow, hypnotic song over and over, to the extent that my 4-year-old asks me to play the ” (3)” song almost every day, because those are the opening lyrics.
**What deputy editor Laia Garcia is listening to:**
I was at a friend’s house recently, celebrating her baby’s first birthday, when the shuffled playlist we were listening to landed on Sonic Youth. It dawned on me that I don’t listen to them nearly as much as I used to; sometimes I have trouble with the Thurston Moore songs, on account of how he broke Kim Gordon’s (and all our) hearts. So last weekend I went on YouTube, and played some of their videos and then just let *their* shuffle take me away. “Bull in the Heather” was one of the first Sonic Youth songs I loved, and somehow in all my previous YouTube crawls, I had never once seen this performance on Letterman. Sure, the (4) is cool because Kathleen Hanna is wearing a crazy outfit and she’s beating Thurston up, but seeing a heavily pregnant Kim in an oversized Knicks jersey, singing this live is forever ICONIC.
**What assistant editor Molly Elizalde is listening to:**
Maybe my California upbringing gave me the wrong idea that it should be warm by my birthday at the end of March, but if it still isn’t breaking 55 degrees every day at this point in the year, it makes the end of winter feel extra gloomy. Two new geranium plants are brightening up my windowsill at home, but I’m still feeling wallflower vibes in waiting for spring to stick around. I’ve found myself leaving Patsy Cline on loop—there’s something optimistic about her always-melancholy songs, the light and airy piano to (5) uplifting the sadness of the lyrics. And while I feel a bit of guilt listening to an artist whose songs are all about pining for a man who’s left her, I can’t help but relish in her hopefulness.
1) (https://lennyletter.com/culture/interviews/a301/using-music-to-work-through-a-fathers-estrangement/)
2) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fokoZs6SLdI)
3) (https://genius.com/Thao-and-the-get-down-stay-down-nobody-dies-lyrics)
4) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JGBNkLM9_8)
5) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWCUh6tf7PA)
