Sounds & Sights of Silva - 2024 Thus Far
Recapping Zach's First Half of the Year
My first six months of 2024 saw continued travel, adventures to parts of the country and world I probably should have been to already but hadn’t yet, those places just out of reasonable reach. And similarly, my music consumption followed a similar pattern – discovering new artists but also coming across day-making releases from decades ago that somehow slipped from the space between my ears and my headphones.
March marked my first ever attendance at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX. Between barbecue joints and beneath the old neon signs of bars and clubs in downtown Austin, I saw plenty of exciting new bands. Many artists also used their precious platform to stand up to unimaginable cruelty and willful negligence, which I commend.
A week later, I roasted in 100-degree weather on the shipping docks of Kaohsiung as the annual Megaport Festival brought artists from around Asia to Taiwan. It was stunning to see the range of genres and performances this year – Taiwan indie legends Green!Eyes making a triumphant yet bittersweet return; Avantgardey from Japan pulling out Cantonese classics to complement their choreography; the punk stylings of Fire Ex, the Wayne Liu tribute, BB Bomb, and Flesh Juicer’s stage crew’s best imitation of the band they serve; and of course No Party for Cao Dong showing why they became one of the youngest groups to headline in the festival’s history.
Then I spent some time working way idly in Guangzhou, until it was time to fly to Seoul, South Korea during the Labour Day Holiday. I surprised my music journalist friends by already knowing some of the underground record shops in the university neighborhood of Hongdae. Seoul was a very vibrant atmosphere, and I probably ate more food on this trip than on any other week excursion in my life.
And now I sit writing this recap in my room in upstate New York. Finally a chance to catch my breath and reflect on everything I’ve seen and listened to so far in 2024.
I promise it won’t take as long for the next newsletter, and it also won’t be long until I’m back on the road.
Here are some of my favorite releases from the first half of 2024, as well as some new old discoveries.
Favorite Releases of 2024
Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future
Adrianne Lenker is easily on her way to being cemented as one of the greatest songwriters of our current generation. Between her solo material and her songs with Big Thief, she never misses. She paints pictures with her lyrics, unabashed in her recollections of both heartbreak and pleasure alike.
🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵
Nourished by Time - Catching Chickens EP
After their debut album Erotic Probiotic 2 landed on a lot of critic’s list for favorite releases of 2023, Nourished by Time released an excellent follow up EP titled Catching Chickens. The genre bending that lands somewhere between 80s dream pop, 90s hip hop, and 00s indie rock is refreshing to hear and catchy as hell.
🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵
This Is Lorelei - Box For Buddy, Box For Star
There’s something funny about hearing a song and immediately associating it with another artist so niche that it’s almost surprising that there’s something even remotely similar to the original material. This release from Water From Your Eyes-spinoff This Is Lorelei immediately reminded me of The Magnetic Fields – bite-sized pop songs with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and blunt sincerity, but in this case made for the 2020s.
🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵
Friko - Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here
Very pleased to have the rare opportunity to shout out a band from the place where I attended university, Evanston, Illinois. I had the chance to see this three-piece perform on a small, makeshift stage at Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas as part of SXSW festivities. I was instantly blown away at the energy and confidence, not just in the grungy rippers like “Crashing Through”, but also in the quieter, contemplative moments.
New Discoveries
Fishmans
Fishmans is the greatest band from Japan that you’ve maybe never heard of – I certainly wasn’t familiar with them until independently coming across the album Long Season and seeing a screening of the documentary Fishmans (2001) in Taipei. The lead singer tragically passed away less than a decade into the band’s career, following which the band suddenly took on a cult following. Their work is a masterpiece of psychedelia, dub, Shibuya-kei, and many more sounds and moods I was encountering for the first time listening to their music.
🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵
Drop Nineteens
We’re in a shoegaze gold rush at the moment, with many hidden gems of the 90s resurrecting crashing into waves and waves of new talent who are discovering their own fuzz. Drop Nineteens released two albums in back to back years in the early ‘90s then promptly disbanded, until 2023 when they surprise announced a new record and subsequent tour.
🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵
Zazen Boys
At the Megaport Festival in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, I sat down on a comfortable patch of grass on the seaside and bear witness to the controlled chaos of Zazen Boys. Zazen Boys is the spiritual successor to popular Japanese noise rock group Number Girl, and their combination of brutal musicianship and on-stage playfulness is a sight to behold.
🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵
MJ Lenderman
I completely missed the boat on MJ Lenderman and his 2022 album and subsequent live album in 2023. But once I started listening to his Americana-tinged indie rock, everything made sense. He already has a new record scheduled for release in Fall 2024 and the first single is thankfully more of the same.
Follow the full playlist of Sounds of Silva featured tracks.
Listen to Zach’s radio show archive for Friend From A Big City on Deadbeat Radio and new episodes here on Substack.