Frost Children, Kara Jackson, Paul Cauthen + More

Songs for sticky summer dance parties and the mornings that follow

Happy Sunday, there are more new songs out there and a few less new ones I wanted to talk about too. Follow along with this playlist to get a weekly update of fresh tracks.

A Frost Family Affair

Hardly a weekend goes by where I don’t find myself at a party Angel or Lulu of Frost Children are hosting or DJing. At a party they DJed at Zone 1 this summer I vividly remember hearing the intro to Macklemore’s “Same Love” where he says “I thought that I was gay” followed by “thought that I was gay, gay, gay, gay” being sampled into oblivion over a dance beat. On Halloween night they fully committed to the bit and showed up to Rebecca’s in inflatable Spongebob and Patrick costumes and performed a full 25 minute set with songs in distorted cartoon vocals. On Friday I took an accidental disco nap and rolled up to the release party for SPEED RUN around 1:30am and was immediately greeted by a sweaty room dancing to Drake and Skrillex. Frost Children are a shining example in the shift of nightlife and the music that drives it moving away from self-serious elitism and into a space that prioritizes having fun. It’s rare for recorded music to harness the electric energy of a great party but Frost Children have figured out the magic and sew together a dense collection of sounds and textures with slick vocals that capture that excitement perfectly.

Kara Jackson

Even if you didn’t know Kara Jackson rose to the public eye after being named the Youth National Poet Laureate in 2019, you’d be able to guess that she approaches crafting songs as a writer first. Her music is guided by not just tremendous lyricism but also the inflection and intonation that she delivers it with. She has the well timed patience of a poet who has honed their craft through readings and picked up a guitar to bring melody to the words. Her debut, Why Does Earth Give Us People To Love?, employs an expert level of restraint, walking through the tracks like a monologue with Jackson’s smokey vocals often accompanied by sparse guitar and little else. Much like the album’s title itself, the project is full of simple questions, like why those we love get sick and why men seem to pick the wrong places to look for mothers, and leaves space for the non-existent answers.

More to Love

Some other favorites from this week include the sophomore release from metalcore-ish group Jesus Piece. Their show last month was, memorably, the closest i’ve ever been to being incinerated in a mosh pit. Also in new heavy releases, Chat Pile released a split with fellow Midwest rockers Nerver, a perfect sludgy little follow up to last year’s masterful God’s Country. Fenne Lily’s latest is a terrific collection of folksy tunes tailor made for overcast walks in the park.

I’m particularly stoked to hit send on this newsletter and then spend time unraveling the latest from Sample Drill staple Shawny Binladen, his first after releasing nearly 100 tracks across five tapes in 2022. His ability to weave together the familiar, unexpected, and unrecognizable can’t be beat, fingers crossed for another dream pop beat on this one.

Out late Outlaw

I am a big country music head. First I was indoctrinated through the safe halls of classic country, then fell in love with the Outlaws, then finally, under some moonlit sky with a Bud Light and bonfire came to an understanding with contemporary pop country. Luke Bryan, HARDY, Miranda Lambert, and Jason Aldean are as much staples in my listening as Waylon and Willie these days. There are plenty of modern outlaws (shoutout Sturgill) who are making great tunes, but I haven’t found a ton that marries that iconic Texas grit with the lighthearted, tongue-and-cheek sensibilities of radio country hits, which is why I was so thrilled to stumble into this Paul Cauthen record from last year this week. Cauthen has the booming gravelly voice of a cowboy in the sky but the sweeping glamour of any CMA awarded pop icon (“She’s wearing Versace and I’m flossin’ Tom Ford!”) Crunchy guitars and harmonica solos drive under vocal melodies as bold as a Highwaymen chorus. Between the billowing Texas dust and overt wealth flaunting, there’s some moments of twinkling synths that conjure up the visual of a dusty disco ball in a dive bar. It’s a record that’s well versed in the broad sweeping of history of country, but doesn’t take itself too seriously to indulge in the campy tropes the genre has spawned over the decades.

See you next week, have fun out there until then!