UNSLUMP! Volume XIX: May 2025
Wake up your ears with Mei Semones, Ezra Furman, RIP Swirl and more.
What’s cooking? Welcome to UNSLUMP! The Music Recommendation substack. If you’re getting this email, that means you are finding yourself in a music SLUMP (bad), and I am here to give you some recommendations (good)!
May 2025 was filled with lots of great music— a welcome respite from a really tough work month. Sometimes it’s hard to slow down and catch your breath, and it’s especially difficult when your heart yearns to be swimming in Lake Washington but your body is trapped doing corporate AV in a Bellevue hotel. Alas, here’s to hoping for balance in June.
Here’s highlights of some shows I saw in May:
Deerhoof (XVIII), Kusikia at Neumos
One of the best live shows I’ve seen in recent time. Deerhoof is one of my top five bands of the current moment!
Kusikia, who I hadn’t heard of previously, are a PNW-based band who blew me away with their atmospheric and haunting sound. Excited to see more of them!
Gang of Four at Neptune Theatre
It’s Gang of Four’s farewell tour, and it’s a bittersweet goodbye to a band who still knows how to rock our socks off. Super glad to have caught them at Neptune Theatre. Favorite moment? When Jon King smashed a microwave!
Really wanting to read Jon King’s book, To Hell with Poverty!
Midpak at Northwest Folklife
Local funk-psych group Midpak was a highlight of Northwest Folklife this year. Catch them locally, they most recently played Sea Monster Lounge!
Want more UNSLUMP!? Here’s this year’s master playlist. And don’t forget the concert calendar if you’re in Seattle.
UNSLUMP! can’t feature em’ all, but here’s this month’s top 7 for you to try!
Follow along on: Spotify | Apple Music
7 - Zarigani - Mei Semones (Animaru) [May 2025]
For fans of: Wombo, gentle scatting, Origami Angel, bossa nova, Indigo de Souza (I)
Brooklyn-based Japanese artist Mei Semones delivers a beautiful, hope-filled jazzy indie rock/bossa nova album via Bayonet Records. It’s exquisite, and one of my favorites of the year so far. Semones is one of those discoveries that inspires me to keep writing UNSLUMP! Music is so kick-ass!
Arpeggiating guitars, bossa rhythms, orchestral sweeps and mathy flourishes fill this album, with songs feeling springy and playful. Lyrics alternate between English and Japanese.
Featured track “Zarigani”, translating to “crayfish”, is an expression of love for Semones’ twin sister. My favorite part of “Zarigani” is when Semones repeats “Don’t let your guard down.” There’s something in that line that makes the chest tighten :-).
Other standout tracks: “Animaru”, “I can do what I want”, “Donguri”
Fun fact- Mei’s mom, Seiko Semones, makes all of her album and single artwork, similar to Indigo de Souza, whose mother also makes her album artwork!
6 - Original Guilt - Broncho (Natural Pleasure) [April 2025]
For fans of: Dune (David Lynch version), being in the woods, Vampire Weekend
It’s been seven years since the last Broncho album, and time only makes the heart grow fonder. Oklahoma-based Broncho was a formative band for my 2014 indie rock exploration phase, and they continue to be a group I go back to when I want to feel like myself.
Natural Pleasure marks a departure from their more playful and groovy upbeat tracks in favor of shoegazy textures and introspective rhythms. My favorite thing about Broncho has always been vocalist Ryan Lindsey. I never know what he’s saying, and I really love that. His voice is another texture — It can be dreamy and soft, or brash and whiny. His voice has always felt like another instrument.
It may have been seven years, but this album was worth the wait.
5 - Fallen - Jimmie D, Nicholas Craven (Good Music Hypnotizes) [May 2025]
For fans of: Detroit hip hop, Carole King, bedazzled jeans
The summer gets me in the mood for Nicholas Craven, and he just produced this great Jimmie D. album after last year’s Penalty of Leadership (II) for Boldy James. I hadn’t listened to Montréal, Québec’s Jimmie D before this, but I found his flows to be complemented well by Craven’s masterful sampling, stretching and looping.
Good Music Hypnotizes is an easy listen, perfect for a beach trip or a long drive with the windows down.
Other standout tracks: “High Winds”, “Notre Dame”
4 - Spirals On My Tongue - RIP Swirl, Ydegirl (Emo Regulation EP) [May 2025]
For fans of: My Bloody Valentine, dessert wine, the red wax from babybel cheese
Berlin-based producer RIP Swirl weaves his way from RnB to laid-back Nilufer Yanya (XIV)-esque indie pop. I really liked his 2024 project, Perfectly Blue, and this EP follows it nicely, albeit a bit more forgettably. Still, I think “Spirals On My Tongue” fits well into the mix, especially with the lyric “Perfect day… by the lake.” I’m manifesting!
There is very little information about RIP Swirl online, so I want to do some field research (going to his concert in June- see below for June’s complete concert radar!).
3 - I Need the Angel - Ezra Furman (Goodbye Small Head) [May 2025]
For fans of: The Velvet Underground, moped rides, The Replacements, Father John Misty (XIII) (they share a record label!)
Another release that saved me this month. I’ve had this on repeat since it came out and it’s not leaving my rotation any time soon. I first stumbled upon Ezra Furman via her soundtrack for Netflix’s Sex Education, but it’s my mom who locked in on Ezra and became a mega-fan. I’m excited to catch her show at the Crocodile in August!
Many of these songs arrived unexpectedly and left my body violently. All of them seemed to be steeped in the helpless transcendence of being suddenly overcome, undone.
Goodbye Small Head is filled with emotion, longing, and some of Ezra’s most astounding lyricism to date. Tracks are packed with exhaustion and anger, leading to candid reflections and sweeping beauty. The album reminds me of the Velvet Underground and the simple lyricism of Lou Reed, with track “I Need the Angel” being my favorite. I love when the lyrics disintegrate into a sprawling, distorted guitar solo before finding their footing again.
Other standout tracks: “Power of the Moon”, “Jump Out”, “You Mustn’’t Show Weakness”, “You Hurt Me I Hate You”, “Slow Burn”, “A World of Love and Care”… Who am I kidding. Listen to it all!
2 - Cinderella - Model/Actriz (Pirouette) [May 2025]
For fans of: Squid (XVI), the Killers, industrial noise, meatballs
Punk is back! Model/Actriz is a band that’s been recommended to me many times by friends (Hi Wyatt, hi Manasa!) and it took this new album Pirouette for me to come to my senses and take a listen. I’m glad I did. Model/Actriz is on tour! It’s perfect timing.
Model/Actriz balances dance-heavy bass with strong lyrics and insane live performance energy. Bass player Adam Shapiro once described their sound as “everything is a drum”. Singer Cole Haden’s vocal delivery reminds me a bit of Nation of Language, but it’s his lyrics that are totally raw; reveling in queer joy and confusion, a direction frequently ignored within the punk ether.
“Cinderella” is a beautiful, dance-ably poetic track.
Other standout tracks: “Vespers”, “Poppy”, “Diva”
1 - The World is My Runway - Artificial Go (Musical Chairs) [May 2025]
For fans of: skorts, Suburban Lawns, dog haircut videos, pool noodles, Finom (VIII), no wave
A playful, charming, post-punk indie pop adventure from Artificial Go, following their Hopscotch Fever EP. The Cincinatti-based trio trades off instruments on this album, harnessing an art punk chaotic energy that is a blast to listen to.
Musical Chairs reminds me a bit of the B52s, especially featured track “The World is My Runway”. This track is an ode to living as a spectacle, being authentic and living life. It reminds me of one of my favorite aphorisms: “Grab life by the balls and squeeze!”
🎵 Seattle Show Radar: June 🎵:
Tons of great shows this month, so highlighting my favorites down below with more on the Google Calendar, here! Artists I’ve mentioned in UNSLUMP! previously are linked to their editions :-)
6.2 Billy Woods (XV), Quelle Chris at Madame Lou's - Tickets
6.6-6.7 Big Ass Boombox at The Sunset Tavern - Tickets (Day 1, Day 2)
Free local music festival in Ballard featuring 16 bands over two nights!
6.10-6.11 OMD at Moore Theatre - Tickets
6.13 The Crocodile Presents: R.A.P. FERREIRA wsg/ BLAX & Frankie Jax - Tickets
6.13 Clock-Out Lounge Presents: Casual Hex w/ Versing, SUX, Fine - Tickets
6.13-6.15 They Might Be Giants at Neptune Theatre - Tickets
6.14 Tractor Tavern Presents: Twain, guests - Tickets
6.19 Oso Oso at the Vera Project - Tickets
6.19 Panchinko (XV) with Tanukichan at Showbox SoDo - Tickets
6.20 Karate at Madame Lou’s - Tickets
6.21 2025 FREMONT SOLSTICE DAY PARTY feat. WARREN DUNES, MIDPAK* - Tickets
6.22 Broncho* at Neumos - Tickets
6.22 KEXP Presents: LIVE! ON STAGE: JONATHAN RICHMAN (The Modern Lovers)- Tickets
6.24 Provoker with support from RIP Swirl* and Faerybabyy - Tickets
6.25-6.26 Belltown Bloom and The Crocodile Present: Crumb, Discovery Zone (IV) - Tickets
6.25 The Crocodile Presents: Esmé Patterson - Tickets
That wraps up Volume XIX of UNSLUMP! Let me know what you thought of this month’s picks, I’d love to know your favorites! Tell me something great that happened last month.. I’d love to know :-)
Until June - Stay out of the slump!
Jess