What We Are Listening To: Monster Children NYC #6
Hello, my name is Naz Kawakami. I’m the Deputy Editor 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.
Something that has bothered me very much lately is the trendiness of the aesthetic of my adolescence, though it is to be expected. The 20 year cycle - the cultural cycle in which, at any given moment, whatever was popular 20 years ago comes back into style because it is seen as retro and nostalgic to those who were born just as that period was ending - is in full effect with kids dressing like Scott Pilgrim characters having never read the books and asking me if I’ve heard of Jonathan Fire*Eater. At the risk of sounding terribly cliche and bitter, I have liked the Strokes, Interpol, Arctic Monkeys, etc since they were fresh as flowers and very uncool. I mean, these bands were huge, but they were very uncool at my middle/high school, at least. No one saw what I was listening to and thought, ‘wow that guy is on the cutting edge!’ Nah, they were into Nelly and Chris Brown. I remember at a dance in the 8th grade being very excited when the DJ threw on ‘Last Night’. All the other kids booed, so he changed it. Crushing.
Anyone old enough to have a generation below them is doomed to this feeling, and I embrace my distaste to a degree. I suppose I am most bothered by the fact that the trend of aesthetic currently known as ‘Indie Sleaze’ is to that era as Saturday Night Fever was to disco: commercial bullshit. Indie Sleaze as it exists today isn’t a miraculous cultural movement or a musical response to socio-economic conditions - it’s just a label for fashion magazines to get more clout and TikTokkers to get more views. Indie Sleaze in its current iteration is incredibly commercialized, incredibly white, and quite insincere, and I am devestated watching the music and culture I love and feel personally enthralled within, accepted into, and affected by, get turned into a meme the way Dime Square, Goths, and Nirvana have.
Anyway, on to this week’s playlist. Because I grew up during these important years in music (2000ish-2009ish), it is most of what I know and love (and was most of what I played on the radio every week), so this playlist is a bit bulky. This week, we are taking a look at a few tracks (200 to be exact) that capture or reflect that very shitty essence. I tried to leave out all the obvious ones, though some crept in because they are that damn good. What a time. 3rd-10th grade was awful, but the music was great. Have a good weekend.
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