Hey there! Welcome to the first installment of a monthly column called Bonus Track. Think of it like a “Letter from the Editor” that looks back on the past month and shares some music you might have missed. This column will be published on the last Sunday of each month if you want to look out for it.
Here’s what I’ve got this month:
- State of the Tapes 2025
- Thoughts on new LPs from jasmine.4.t and Lambrini Girls
- A spotlight on Michele Catalano of I Have That on Vinyl
State of the Tapes 2025
At the end of my 2024 Rewind piece, I said that I would reflect on the first year of Blank Tapes, so let’s do that.
If you didn’t know, this project started as a monthly newsletter in February 2024 and ran for a few months. I still remember writing what would’ve been my June essay and wondering the point of it all. It turns out severe creative fatigue will do that!
My interview with best friend and former bandmate Phil Smith (of Burlington, VT band YABAI!) was a catapult back toward more routine writing about music. It continued as a beehiiv-hosted newsletter but transitioned to WordPress in mid-September, where I plan to stay for the long haul (barring any stupid drama destabilizing things…).
While I’ve always loved interviewing bands and musicians, the last few years have rooted me in my local community in a way I had never experienced before. So, once untethered from the V1 idea of “how can I write about music again?” it was a no-brainer to combine the two and support the Durham/Chapel Hill/Raleigh and North Carolina music scenes in the process.
Where has that gotten us so far?
- In 2024, I published 11 pieces in under four months, from interviews and reviews to essays, show reviews, and band retrospectives. My goal is 30 this year (excluding these monthly columns), and we’re already 10% there, with several more already in the works.
- Another goal — hitting 12 local shows in a year — is already over 25% complete and will be blown out of the water. Big thanks to the many excellent bands and concerts around town this month.
- I’m continuing to catalog North Carolina artists for a public directory/resource in the second half of 2025.
I don’t measure the success of this website on much beyond giving a platform to awesome local bands and my love for certain albums. That said, I’m a huge data nerd, and there have been plenty of milestones to celebrate so far:
- November traffic was greater than September and October combined
- December was busier than the previous 3 months combined
- January topped November in less than 15 days
- The interviews with blankstate. and cuffing season were instant top-5 performers
Writing about and amplifying wonderful humans has been a shining joy in an otherwise dark world. I can’t express how it feels to build community locally and with like-minded folks on Bluesky. If you’re on the fence about a new social media platform, trust me when I say that the water is fine. Come jump in and follow me: @blanktapes.co.
I’d love to expand beyond North Carolina in the future. The fastest way to do with out-of-state contributors who are passionate about uplifting their local scenes. Maybe that’s you or someone you know?
In Case You Missed It…
Here is your quick wrap-up of what’s been published on the website this month:
- Breaking Up with Your Music Streaming Service — There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but we can still make informed choices. Right?
- Interview: cuffing season — Bridging different musical upbringings, the power of just doing the work, and thoughts ahead of their debut LP
- Interview: blankstate. — Bringing new songs into a setlist, outgrowing your local scene, and channeling live energy when songwriting
But hang on, because January isn’t over yet! Stay tuned for a “15 Years of [BAND REDACTED]” retrospective next week to cap off the month.
This Month in Music
Lambrini Girls — Who Let The Dogs Out [City Slang]
Well fuck. I didn’t expect to get slapped with a potential “best punk album of the year” right out of the gate. Let alone a “best punk album of the last X years” in the middle of January. And yet here is Lambrini Girls, in this debut LP no less, eager to melt your face off in under 30 minutes.
Phoebe Lunny’s vocals often take center stage, and for good reason. She has a fury brooding below the surface that yearns to be unleashed with hellish screams about police brutality (“Bad Apple”), toxic yet painfully fragile masculinity (“Big Dick Energy”), queer love in the face of homophobia (“No Homo”), and gentrification pricing out native residents (“You’re Not From Around Here”). And lyrically, she hits each topic on the head without coming off as surface-level. There are clear lived connections behind Lunny’s cathartic shrieks that are impossible to dismiss.
Where the record often leaves my jaw on the floor is with its shredding guitar lines and satisfyingly fuzzy tones. Daniel Fox (producer of SPRINTS’ Letter to Self) is a wizard, making every song sound as bombastic as it deserves, while Seth Manchester (METZ, Mdou Moctar, The Hotelier) ensures a satisfyingly balanced mix for the listener. It feels like the best of bands like SPRINTS and The Chisel, but taken to a whole other level. All I want is to mosh to this band in a grungy basement.
Jasmine.4.t — You Are The Morning [Dead Oceans]
In the face of so much trans hate, it’s refreshing to have a trans woman’s debut record cosigned and produced by one of the day’s biggest indie supergroups. Jasmine Cruickshank, who performs as jasmine.4.t, became the first UK signee to Phoebe Bridgers’ record label Saddest Factory. This record is also produced by boygenius and features all three members in different backing vocal roles.
As a whole, it is a delicate singer/songwriter indie folk in the Elliot Smith vein, if he had a string symphony on call to send shivers down your spine at a moment’s notice. “Highfield” and the title track are a great examples of this fragile intimacy that Jasmine crafts. But my favorite moments are when she goes all out with rockin’ bangers like “Skin on Skin” and “Elephant”.
If there is a (very) minor nitpick, it’s that the rock-oriented songs-turned-singles painted a different picture of the record than what you get after a full listen. I can understand how a more intimate song like “Kitchen” or “Roan” doesn’t fit the single mold, but it would’ve been nice to uncover more of those bouncier tracks upon first listen rather than treading familiar ground.
Aren’t We Amphibians / awakebutstillinbed / California Cousins / Your Arms Are My Cocoon – fourwaysplit [self-released]
Man, I long for the days of split EPs that fucking slap enough to generate some buzz and build connections between music scenes. That’s exactly what Aren’t We Amphibians, awakebutstillinbed, California Cousins, and Your Arms Are My Cocoon do with fourwaysplit. Each band covers a different part of the underground rock tapestry, from melodic Midwest emo to full-on skramz and everything in between. Each of these bands are exciting to watch and give it their all in under eight minutes.
FKA twigs — EUSEXUA [Young/Atlantic]
I haven’t had enough time to sit with this one but the early returns are “perfect bait for queer dance parties in 2025.” It’s a bit early to call it an album of the year contender, but it did make me visibly bounce in my chair at a Subaru dealership. Call that what you will.
Overall, here are my top records from the month so far:
And here’s a convenient playlist of my favorite new songs in 2025:
Follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm if you feel so inclined.
Artist Spotlight: Michele Catalano
Not long after getting started on Bluesky, it became impossible to avoid a certain account known as “inthefade”. I was not much of a Twitter user so I am oblivious to the audience the account, ran by Michele Catalano, built on the platform. Nonetheless, I followed and enjoyed their mix of music and sports posts long enough to learn about the launch of her website I Have That on Vinyl in mid-December.
Since then, she’s been creating outstanding personal essays, Q&As with some of my favorite musicians, and a platform for fellow writers and music lovers to publish their work. In her essays, Michele manages to gush about the album while taking an intimate look at everything that surrounded that moment in time. There’s no better piece (currently) that flexes that skill than her recent look on Sarah McLachlan’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.
She’s worthy of spotlight for her fierce loyalty to the music community alone. The lengths she takes to ensure contributors are paid is inspiring in our capitalist hellscape. You can support her Authors’ Fund via Venmo and Paypal.
[Pst! Are you a music lover and/or creative who wants to be featured in the monthly spotlight? Email me at ja*****@********es.co!]
That’s all for this month’s column. Thanks for reading, stay safe (and sane), and support local music. 🤘
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