What's everyone listening to this weekend?

A new music playlist featuring Drug Church, more from Cults, Sampha and Little Simz joining forces, and is this the return of the Beastie Boys?

It’s been a messy, windy, foggy, chilly grind.

It’s school holidays, the kids are stuck at home and they’re eating all the snacks.

The past seven days have been relentlessly soundtracked by rainfall.

That was a week that felt like it went on for a month.

And now it’s the weekend!

What are you doing? What plans do you have?

More importantly, what will you be playing to soundtrack it all?

I’ve been searching high and low for new music to keep myself sane, so today’s newsletter is going to take you on a bit of a journey of everything I’ve been listening to lately.

Brace yourself: things start loud and rowdy, and then they get weird, and then they get spiritual, and then they go quiet.

A bit like the best kind of weekend, when you think about it.

Drug Church – ‘Demolition Man’

Every time I hear a new song from Drug Church, it gives me the same sensation I had hearing Helmet and Deftones for the first time. In other words, they make me want to swing a baseball bat into a shelving unit stacked with delicately arranged crockery.

Cold Gawd – ‘Gorgeous’

Everyone keeps saying “shoegaze is back” but did it ever really go away? Rancho Cucamonga’s Cold Gawd prove there’s plenty left to mine from fuzzed out guitars, constantly shifting textures, five-minute songs and a singer who stands at least three feet away from his microphone.

Joey Valence & Brae – ‘PACKAPUNCH’

Someone clearly decided there was a Beastie Boys-sized hole in the current musical landscape and that they’d better fill it with a 90s-indebted backpack rap throwback. The video gives me Goldie Lookin Chain vibes, but we haven’t heard Danny Brown rap over this kind of beat in what must be at least three albums.

Toro Y Moi – ‘Heaven’

I like any music that can be described as “woozy”. The latest single from Toro Y Moi is capital-w Wooze, a soothing summer jam that makes me pine for 30-degree days doing bombs in the deep end of a public pool then celebrating with K Bars and cold cans of Sprite. Could Chaz Bear please play Laneway? Wouldn’t that be cool?

Salvia Palth – ‘How Many Will I Make’

Aotearoa’s elusive and jaded Spotify titan Daniel Johann returned with his second album last month, a momentous event 10 years in the making (it took me two years just to interview him). ‘How Many Will I Make’ is my favourite track from last chance to see, a song that provides the crucial link between melanchole and where he is now. Put on your headphones, go for a walk, listen to the lyrics. It goes deep.

Cults – ‘Hung the Moon’

Starry-eyed mystics chant at the moon for five-and-a-half minutes. Sign me up. This is the only cult I want to join. (I’m not wearing robes.)

Sampha & Little Simz – ‘Satellite Business 2.0’

Such promise! Could they even begin to live up to everything this pairing suggests it could be? You betcha! ‘Satellite Business 2.0’ is a skittery, atmospheric jam that suddenly erupts with Simz’ scattershot raps. They should start a band, call it Little Samphz, and do a whole album together. Spam the pair to make it happen.

hanbee – days months years

To finish, hanbee is a local chillwave dreampopper who lays soft clouds down for you to fall into then float away. Maybe save this one for your lazy Sunday afternoon.

Please! Don’t let me be the only voice here. Send me your weekend playlist recommendations. What are you listening to? Old? New? Fresh? Stale? I’d love to hear from you…