Friday Heavy: September 16, 2022

Cliff: Welcome to Friday heavy. You’re a guy to the world of aggressive, abrasive, loud music brought to you by the folks behind tune dig. I’m cliff.

Kyle: And I am Kyle for those of you joining us for the first time, we sure are glad you’re here. Here’s the basic premise in a very quick commute length format. Ideally 15 minutes or less. We cover three things. First, one brand new release in the world of heavy music and why we think it’ll be worth

your time to take it for a spin.

Second one playlist we’ve curated to help you explore. Heavy sub genre or artist or scene often related to the new release in some way or inspired by it, which is very much the case today. Thirdly, and most importantly, by far one organization tackling a heavy issue by doing critical culture, impacting work in their community.

Cause that’s what punk rock taught us

to do and what we’re proud of. So cliff new release let’s get into.

Cliff: Heck. Yeah. Hey, Kyle, let’s do an accessible episode for the people

Kyle: This will be like Friday heavy ASMR, a little bit.

Cliff: So out this week, we’re gonna talk about the new release from holy F called dimensional bleed. And they are doing the indie version of blowing

up right now.

Kyle: They got, some juice. They got like a goth turn style thing going on a little, they got some juice for sure.

Cliff: My anecdotal billboard 100, uh, is if I see more than one person wearing their shirt, walking their dog around grant park, they are on the rise and that has served me a hundred percent of the time that always works.

Kyle: they have sick ass merch and all the online stuff is sold out right now. So I’m hoping to catch some and cop some in the near future, or I hope they listen to this and maybe we’ll send to some, but I will buy it. So just let me know.

Cliff: Totally. And on top of dimensional bleed being a good record, which by the way, was put out by wax bodega records. It, when we say accessible it’s, literally this is a very, very good kind of front door band for gestures broadly, post rock. They classify themselves as, uh, I think their bio four creatures making loud, heavy, pretty noises or something like that.

That’s okay. that’s.

great. It really is though a fantastic entry point to a million influences that they include in their work. And on top of it being. it helps you get into both the instrumental and non-instrumental forms of post rock, I think, which is the especially cool part about it.

That is usually the dividing razor of sorts along the ethereal type of music. Where on, you know, on one side you got Astron and like circus survive, or even some Thra songs, uh, in bands that have really good vocals and know how to kind of use it texturally. But then on the other side, when you have kind of energetic long instrumental interludes, you’re hitting Russian circles.

And so I watch you from afar in Senate and on top of that, they’re bringing in I love referencing these two bands together, but both slow dive and slow crush, uh, all kind of like mixed up in here. And from their band camp, they talked about it being, physically tethered to this reality yet creatively unmoored.

From earthly restraints, uh, holy fond, the band freely slip in and out of metal shoe days, electronic alternative and rock as if inhabiting multiple states of Sonic existence. All at once. We don’t deal in linear time here on the Friday heavy. So

um, we didn’t need that last phrase everything’s happening at once all the time, but that’s a pretty good overview.

And

Kyle: I wanna make, I wanna Photoshop a version of the, everything everywhere, all at once poster, but it’s, it’s our faces. And it says inhabiting multiple states of Sonic existence all at once. I’m probably gonna meme that to you later from my phone.

Cliff: I look forward to that. I’ve been getting those surprise Photoshops from you since the days of my space. So I look forward to them.

Kyle: It’s so easy now but I’m, we’re not paid by Adobe, but Photoshop express is amazing. It’s been the best thing for speeding up my meme game in the history of my brain dead life.

Cliff: Absolutely. And we all learned Photoshop on that fully paid for legally licensed, very expensive version

Kyle: were just joking about me, torr renting something the other day, man. I was real. I was so good at piracy

Cliff: I would agree

with

Kyle: that’s not an admission of guilt, by the way, for anyone listening

Cliff: yeah, I’m a legal professional. And as long as you say that after you say the confession thing, you’re good. You’re good. You’re good.

Kyle: of sovereign citizen immunity or

Cliff: oh.

Kyle: back to holy fun.

Cliff: Oh, why should we. Pitchfork qualifies it as kind of for modern fans of few gays, black gays, or post metal, uh, and says that they’ve become though quote, the ultimate recommended if you like band they’re the people’s champs. I don’t always get a great solidarity. Vibe from a Pitchfork review.

But, um, I like that phrase and Kyle, you must have too, cuz I think you threw it in here and bolded it in our outline. And so,

to that end, it is worth saying, especially for folks like me, there’s not a lot, that’s like challenging or difficult about the new record. It’s good.

Kyle: yeah, but there doesn’t have to be

right.

Not everything. Not everything should be primitive, man. By design

Cliff: I, it could it well fine. It’s it

is

Kyle: the listen in inside your brain is a different story out here in real world physics. Let’s mix it up a little bit.

Cliff: I’m stuck here until science advances. And yes though, agreed with you. It doesn’t have to be complex or challenging all the time. And the heavy that it has here is its expansiveness. And we talk about this sometimes, but just kind of like commitment to the bit.

it’s not complex, kind of on purpose.

They do stops and starts. They do changes. They do surprising things for sure. But you’re not gonna be. Count out poly rhythms or anything like that. But I do think that’s indicative of the larger kind of post rock thing in general. It’s, uh, kind of a series of recommended if you like rabbit holes that you can just kind of go down And, go, oh, this band never.

Talks either or sings, oh, this band does it this way. Oh, this is just old field recordings. And all circles into God speed. You black emperor. So you’ll eventually get there anyway. But, uh, but this is such a good thing to, to kind of rekindle your love of this type of music. And I think inspires us to go back and listen to some of these bands that just make us feel good.

Kyle: And somewhat to that point, we’re not sharing audio clips because it’s hard to, to just drop you in the middle. It’s like dropping you in the middle of a field and being like find your way home with the stars. But they put out two singles ahead of the release called death is a relief and the title track dimensional bleed.

Having had a chance to listen through this, which sometimes we have a chance ahead of time. And sometimes we don’t also really personally recommend Amin theme and, and void of light. But it’s a 10 track record. It is just a little under an hour. And it’s, it’s quite good.

Cliff: Kyle actually, why don’t you give me your favorite track? One of the ones that you just mentioned and we’ll play it here.

Kyle: Let’s go with because it’s the first track on our playlist void of light.

 

Kyle: All right. So that was void of light from holy font’s dimensional bleed. Which is out now on triple crown and wax bodega. Uh, as we’ve alluded to earlier in the episode, please go listen to it, however you want. And then send this band, your money through shows, uh, through merch, which we mentioned has a V aesthetic, and this is a personal plea for them to reprint the skull moon shirt design.

But that’ll be one of those shirts that my wife and I. And take where to Publix and, or a direct donation. So thanks very much to holy fun. Can’t wait to catch y’all alive.

Cliff: Right on. And I think Kyle, you probably extended the idea. We were just talking about, about post rock being, uh, a series of rabbit holes. So great. It just looks like the surface of the moon or a shy Lebo film.

Kyle: Oh, HIL ABO booth. What’s really cool about this kind of music. Is that once you start getting down with the musical intent in general, to do things like capture textures, sonically, or to focus only on dialing in specific vibrations, like on the spiritual or cosmic level, then you pretty quickly realize the, I don’t know, let’s call it.

The shoe gay cinematic universe is almost incalculably extensive and wildly diverse. This music is heavy in the sense of wonder at the size of the universe, both the way the music makes you feel and the number of directions that people choose to take it. It’s a very creatively, potent palette or sort of direction to go in as an artist.

so somewhat to your point, there are probably some scenes in this playlist that we put together that people may not think to put together just because they seem to self organize in little clusters, like geographically or around studios or whatever. But I can almost guarantee that every artist on this list is into the other pockets of music on this list to some degree, it’s it’s inspired people being inspiring and inspired. I guess calling it a cinematic universal is appropriate because it’s really a world to live in and explore it’s roughly the same number of tracks as the last few playlists, but it’s almost doubled the run time. So enjoy that. Just sink all the way into the hot tub of this playlist and see where it takes you.

mean, there’s a lot of stuff in here. like in very parallel experiences have become some of our favorite things. Like I always love bringing back up ISIS, the band there’s triangle record stuff like the hacks and cloak, which is super, super sick. There’s Steve on till from neurosis there’s Barnal, which I’ve always put in a totally different category than this stuff.

There’s a silver Mount Zion. There’s not earth, but they’re still in Carlson’s solar record. There’s Boen under club of gore. There’s all bands that just have this thing. That’s, it’s really, really, really cool. There’s something that just draws you in with the way that they compose music. So there’s a lot to get excited about here.

And this is one of the few that I think. I will continue to expand the track list because it is such an expansive idea. Most of the time when we make these playlists, it’s like, it’s done. It’s a snapshot of a moment and we’re gonna move on. But this is an idea that I want to keep returning to one, because there’s so much to explore.

And two, because there’s so much great new stuff like holy F getting made all the time.

Cliff: It’s one of those situations too, where I’m sure, you know, even more than me, but making playlists in your streaming app and letting it do the recommendations based on the playlist will, that’ll give you a nice bit of momentum, especially for these genres to me, like it, it’s just pure discovery. And.

It’s just, it’s hard to get it super wrong when it comes to this category. Right. It’s more about finding what feels good over a long period of time.

Kyle: Agreed. It’s a, it’s a great part of the musical world to feed your curiosity. It sort of never ends.

Cliff: And even though these were both records that were non vocal in our regular tune dig podcast. If you’re curious about kind of exploring how we think about and approach instrumental and expansive music like this in the last season we did, uh, Tangerine dreams PRA uh, and then all the way back in season two, we did monos.

You are there, which is still one of my favorite records, kind of ever. And both of those. Honestly, very different flavors and approaches that we discussed about just what this music means, how to experience it. And especially the springboard that it is towards a million other artists and albums.

You might like

Kyle: I’m gonna go listen to that mono record. As soon as we’re done with this, I haven’t in a long time. So. Speaking of so good. Let’s talk about an organization doing really cool stuff and one that’s near and dear to your heart.

Cliff: Fantastic. I would love to. So continuing the theme of having a, a bit of a more accessible and light episode, uh, we’re gonna have another week of, of lighter fair while we highlight an organization doing critical community work. And like you said, this one’s extra personal for me because I’m both a recipient of the work that this organization does.

And then in recent years, I’ve had the privilege of serving as a board member here with this nonprofit. So what we’re gonna talk about is. Shocking, two white guys on a podcast. Wanna talk to you about bicycles?

Kyle: circles.

Cliff: I feel the need to always tell people about the, between the buried and me cover of Queen’s bicycle.

Whenever this comes up. So anyway, this is contextually relevant for the first time in my entire life. So there it is. But bicycles are like low key. One of the most fascinating things in existence to me because they’re. They’re just a basic machine, but there’s sort of the nexus of so many like physical social and emotional things that flow out of their use and have come to appreciate that.

First of all, when you’re on a bike, You’re on pretty much the most efficient human transportation machine in existence. And yet they are fundamentally unchanged from centuries of use which is just really cool. And then for many though, they’re essential modes of transportation and that is really easy to miss.

And we mean this with no particular shade here. This is easy to miss. If you don’t live in a. and you’ve never had to rely on a bike to get around, uh, especially when you’re like a heavy bus user in a city without good transit coverage. People really don’t understand if you cannot afford to keep and maintain a car, even if you can ride the bus, the bus is not gonna do everything you need it to do all the time, especially in a city like Atlanta.

So it’s bike and bus for you, man. Uh, and if it’s raining your so. Right. So you, you gotta have as many options as possible. So on top of it being like that, and that part being important, it’s also, you know, really healthy, low impact exercise. And the sport has so many accommodations for different levels of physical capabilities.

Different types of bikes are available for people with different limitations and different things their bodies can do. And then on top of all of that, for folks like me, they’re, I’ve been riding bikes my whole life, and I’ve been. Seriously, riding bikes, not in races, but in terms of the amount that I do it for my whole adult life.

And there is something cosmic and unique to me about the experience of doing it in a difficult fashion outside in beautiful scenery, whether with friends or especially, you know, by myself. There’s just, there’s something about it. That’s hard to explain and overwhelms me in a way that music does. So a really big, important step for getting people on bikes in whatever way they need is providing them with the infrastructure to actually be able to ride their bike safely.

Without dying, right? this is incredibly obvious. Uh, there’s lots of research about it, but it means that in addition to like urban infrastructure, right? So bike lanes and protected lanes to let people do errands and short car trips and commuting and all that stuff. It also means building trails and especially multi-use trails, right.

Hiking, biking, and often, um, horses. And so the organization we’re covering today is called Mt. Atlanta, and that’s what they do. And I have the privilege of being on this board and have been for a bit, but I will not pretend here elsewhere to even be sort of important relative to what they actually do as an organization.

Because what’s really what really comes into play are the folks who are out there, literally every. Working with towns and counties and other organizations like literally governments and saying, Hey, you’ve got this little bit of money. We wanna build trails for everybody’s benefit. And we can do it on a really small amount of money usually.

And so they can create multi-use mountain bike trails. In parks alongside walkways. And they can also build bike skills, parks, which are really cool. Like things like pump, tracks, little jumps, other things like that for people to work on their skills and progress. And I love talking about it cuz in my experience with this crew, like the.

They stretch money really, really far. The cities and towns and counties get back a lot more than what they end up investing, especially relative to other, quality of lifestyle investments that happen in the local area. And so for MTB, Atlanta, in addition to building, you know, all around Georgia at this point, I think they’d agree with this.

They’ll pretty much build anywhere. They have the opportunity to do it. If they can get in partnership, they’ll figure out how to make it work. But in addition to, to kind of building everywhere, one of the coolest parts to me in, in, honestly changed my life was realizing that people were building mountain bike trails in the middle of the city.

They’re just like buried in parks that you might not expect. And it’s one of those.

things where the more they can build and the more people notice it and start to use it, the easier it is to build more and more, and then it becomes a trail network. And then it becomes connection points to the belt line, right.

To the path to other trails. And so things begin to sprawl out in a way where it gives people connectivity. That’s not reliant on cars and I’ve come to understand that trails represent that as well, which is really, really cool. And on top of it, it needs to be a well made trail for riding bikes in order to keep people safe and make sure that people are riding at the right skill level relative to their experience and all that stuff.

Right. We don’t want people going out there and trying something and then bunking their nogging the first day. And then being like, I don’t think I am gonna make it if I do this anymore. All of that is wrapped up in this simple deal of designing and. Dirt trails in a park and it makes such a huge difference To.

people and Personally.

um, I’ve really had to limit myself on this kind of soap box about it.

But I’ve personally been able to see the way that just access to trails combined with a community where people have access to a bike without it becoming prohibitively expensive. When those two things are in line people. Are able to encounter a sport and an activity that they otherwise had no access to.

And at least a significant portion of them love it. it brings a lot of joy to my heart To

to see that. Um, and to know though that simple steps can be taken. To introduce more and more people to this thing that they might find a lot of joy and freedom inside of. And I’m just a big believer in what bikes are not only in their physical form, but sort of in their like astrol form, like what they represent what they are sort of doing and what, what they mean for people.

So if you wanna learn more about. All The.

trails that are hiding in Metro Atlanta. And you wanna learn about how this organization turns those relatively small dollar amounts into trail networks. Check out MTB atlanta.com. MTB Atlanta is a member based nonprofit and a chapter of Southern offroad bicycle association and working with international mountain biking association called Inba.

So it’s like concentric circles of local chapters and all that stuff that support one another on these different levels to get things done. And overall it’s really great. I’m a member myself. And like I said, I’m heavily involved, so I support it. You can join up at the website there at MTB, atlanta.com and support all the work that’s being done.

And honestly you get some sweet stuff for being a member too. So it’s worth checking out. If it’s something you care about.

Kyle: I appreciate the way that the. Activity of mountain biking and the lifestyle has made you the Groucho Marxist. You know, I don’t, I don’t wanna be part of any club that would have me as a member. It’s been really good for your soul in a way that’s, that’s radiated out to the people around you. And I, I hope that sort of joy and centeredness has.

Has come through loud and clear in this. And whether or not it’s biking, I hope that you can find something like really practically geographically in the physical world nearby your house or wherever you’re listening to this. That is just something that can make you feel that centered. So, do some biking or find your biking, I guess is the, the.

Fortune cookie that we will leave you with on this episode of Friday heavy. And we’ll be back with more good stuff in two weeks.

Cliff: Go to tunedig.com or follow us on Instagram and Twitter for links to the new release, the playlist and the organization that we talked about today.