What We Are Listening To: Monster Children NYC #10
Hello, my name is Naz Kawakami. I’m the Editor in Chief of Monster Children, based in New York City. Did you know that for a number of years, I was a radio DJ? You probably did because I never shut the fuck up about it. My show was called Night Drive, every Thursday from midnight to 3AM. Those were good times. A lot of sex, drugs, and partying were done in that little Honolulu radio studio. None of it done by me, but it’s still cool to think about.
Anyway, since taking this Editor job, I spend most of my day the way I spent my days as a DJ: listening to music. Some good, some bad. Some old, some new. Every Friday, I compile the week’s worth of music into a playlist. Songs we’ve been enjoying, songs we’ve just (re)discovered, and songs that offer a preview into what features we have coming out soon. Not the newest, not the rarest - just good music. The mood of the week over at the MC New York City office for you to judge and enjoy.
Yesterday, I made a playlist of songs that came out very emo. Not ‘emo’ in the common linguistic sense, but a very literal sense when referring to the genre. Rites of Spring, Cap’n’Jazz - things that people love but are ashamed to talk about, like pineapple pizza, or getting peed on. Personally, I love emo music. I’m a sucker for jangly guitars and shitty singers, and the genre’s inherent weakness and whiteness prevents me from being intimidated by the fanbase because I know that I am in no danger of being the least cool person in the scene.
However, I felt that 20 tracks of 19-year-old suburbanites screaming over drop-tuned guitars and poorly-mic’d drum kits would be a bit of a downer, and we aren’t about that here at Monster Children. We are happy folk. When I was into emo, I was happy, and that got me thinking about other times that I was also happy, which turned out to be few and far between. My late teens and early twenties were objectively bad, mostly due to my own piece-of-shit-ness, but there were some glimmering moments, and I enjoy a bit of nostalgic listening that puts me right back behind the wheel of a shitty 2003 Toyota RAV4, 21 years old, 4 in the morning, pack of cigarettes only half gone, windows down on a chili summer evening and flying south down an empty freeway with the music cranked all the way up to overcome the wind tunnel my vessel had created, feeling as though nowhere and never could possibly be as good as here and now.
This week, I’ve compiled songs for directionless evening drives and youthful hope. Music to play as loudly as your crinkled car speakers will push. Music for pining after your former self, starting of course, with Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘1979’, named for the year that songwriter Billy Corgan was at his most primal youth - a song built of pure, thick, vivid nostalgia. Have a good weekend.
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