Staff Picks and Good Shit for the Week of June 12

Welcome to the Staff Picks. This is where we, the decidedly very #punk Noisey editors dumb out everything we’ve been listening to over the last week. You can listen to them or not. All good to us.

I don’t follow hip-hop opinions that much, but it seems that the consensus on this new A$AP Rocky album is that it’s surprisingly good. All I know is that the opener samples a Lucero song. A weird pairing that probably only appeals to me and two other people. But I like it. I am a real rap head now. Love 2 listen 2 rap music.

Dan Ozzi, Editor
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I put two albums on my phone before I left town for Montreal. One of them was Donnie's Surf and the other was 56 Nights, two albums that I had put on the backburner in my playlist choices for unspecific reasons. But Future's project is getting much more play, because somehow it's more fun than Surf—an album that may as well be a vision board of fun. Future's ability to turn something as simple as him repeating the word "no" into an earworm that you can't shake for the rest of your life on earth makes him the best thing rapping right now, and maybe ever.

Slava P, Canadian Editor
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Hey, it's summertime now. I know this because when I attended a Mets game last night (which they… won…? I know, right?), I was sweating more once the sun went down because that's how NYC is in the summer—boiling heat trapped by concrete. Anyway, the point of this is now we're in the season of wearing shorts and drinking in the sunshine, and there's no music that fits that mood more than Mac DeMarco. Here's one of the singles from his forthcoming mini-LPAnother One, which is out in August via Captured Tracks. "The Way You'd Love Her" is classic Mac—relaxed, charming, and kinda smartass. Catch me at the beach.

Eric Sundermann | Managing Editor
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I'm a longstanding fan of Rudi Zygadlo and his bananas bedroom electronics. When I first met him back in 2012 he recounted a series of unfortunate accidents, including one involving ketamine and falling from a window and ending up in hospital, all of which influenced the creation of his brilliant second record Tragicomedies. A few months back he dropped "Slow Carz" on Mad Decent—which was a much more straightforward banger—but this new song marks a fresh twist in his sound once again. He's pitch-shifted his voice for one, dropping it several notches so he sounds suddenly soulful and not at all like a skinny white boy from Scotland. Also he appears to be backed by tiny robot munchkins. Buoyant and strange, "Sympathies Scrapbook" makes me feel better about life with every press repeat.

Kim Taylor Bennett, Style Editor
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Yeah yeah yeah, we’ve given them a lot of shit in the past few days, but the fact is that Rush is one of the greatest rock bands of all time. I’ll admit they are totally dorky at times, from their recent steampunk influenced stage setup to the druidian robes to an utterly embarrassing foray into rap on “Roll the Bones,” but you’d be hard pressed to find a band as amazing, with such incredible songwriting ability and benchmark-level musicianship, than these three guys from Canada.

Fred Pessaro, Editor in Chief
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I got a goofy promo email about a week ago with the subject line "Wanna come to a country show tomorrow?" I sorta did, but it was in Los Angeles, and I'm in New York. So it goes. I checked out the artist anyway and it was this guy Sam Outlaw. (Outlaw is his real mother's real maiden name. This ain't no Texas cowboy fantasy shit.) Sam's music calls back to the Bakersfield sound of Cali country of decades past one minute and modern roots rock the next, and his voice is kind of an eerie dead ringer for Gram Parsons. Anyways I've been obsessing over it all week.

Craig Jenkins, Contributing Editor
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Fred showed me this back on my first day at Noisey and it has been stuck in my head ever since. "Piss Water" is a song by Pale Angels, a Recess Records band from New Jersey via Wales which actually makes lot of sense considering the way they flip from dark UK hardcore into a totally unexpected Misfits rip about two/thirds of the way in. This is hands down one of the most righteous key changes I've ever heard. If you've hung out with me in the past month, there is no way I haven't sat you down and made you listen to that one specific part at least three times. And while I may not be an angel, I am definitely pale, so there's that.

Bryn Lovitt, Contributing Editor
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My apartment is pretty hellish right now. Obviously I'm super grateful for the space I'm in, but it gets incredibly hot and sleep is nearly impossible. If I listen to the right music though, I can trick myself into thinking it's all okay. Helios is very good at that subterfuge, because it truly feels like I'm in some different planet of coolness. Helios is kind of incredible in the meshing of organic instruments and the sort of electronics that emerge. Even the cover is super nice. Just looking out endlessly into the water, nothing really to worry about. It makes the heat less shitty at night, it feels like being somewhere else.

John Hill | News Editor
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I am at Bonnaroo, and yesterday I ran into the pal Benjamin Booker, so here is a song of his. While I was talking to the dudes in his band, one of them, Max, noticed someone behind me who was pretty sure was Zac Efron. Is Zac Efron at Bonnaroo? None of us know, but if he is, it is my god-given mission to track him down. Anyway, Bonnaroo: It's lit!

Kyle Kramer, Editor
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Today kicks off a weekend that promises to bring a pair of next-level shows and quality hangs to Brooklyn… and of course, I'm ill again. I'm seriously hoping and praying to whatever eldritch gods might be knocking around near Bushwick that a rigorous regimen of Emergen-C, noodles, and lemon tea will banish the plague long enough for me to drag my bones to The Acheron tonight for the sold-out Bongzilla gig. Barring that, tomorrow night's one-two punch of Bell Witch and Akitsa at Saint Vitus (with a very special guest that I know a lot of y'all will be wanting to see) promises to be a pretty fucking solid consolation prize. Either way, pray to the gods of sludge for me.

Kim Kelly, Contributing Editor
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